Stocks continue to end flat as Eid nears

The modest profit booking took place mainly on heavyweight sectors—telecommunications and banks. The benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange DSEX inched 4 points or 0.2% higher to finish at 4,568, extending its gaining streak for the fifth straight session. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, rose only 2 points or 0.2% to 1,754. The DSE Shariah Index witnessed a fractional rise of 0.5 points to 1,106. The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX gained 13 points to 8,549. However, trading activities increased as the DSE turnover stood at Tk475 crore, up about 12% over previous session. Engineering sector continued to dominate the trading, accounting for 18% of the total turnover. Concentration was seen in selective stocks as top 10 companies captured around 36% of the total market turnover. Engineering sector was the highest gainer, surging around 1%, followed by power 0.4%. Non-banking financial institutions, food & allied and pharmaceuticals sector closed flat. Lanka Bangla Securities said the morning session was quite weak as concern over sluggish business activities dampened the market sentiment. Economic data released in the morning showed 18.42% fall in import of July because of sluggish business situation in the country and lower commodity prices in the international market, it said. However, stocks managed to recover in late hour as investors showed some risk appetite on sector-specific stocks in the last week of trading ahead of Eid vacation, it added. Shahjibazar Power remained the most-traded share for the fourth consecutive day with a turnover worth about Tk25 crore. It was followed by Square Pharma, Doreen Power, Singer Bangladesh, Lafarge Surma Cement and Al-haj Textile.