Stocks edged lower in choppy trading on Monday, as late selling pressure to take profit wiped off early gains.
The market began on a happy note in the morning but from the mid-session it started declining on price correction.
After gaining more than 65 points in the first hour of the day’s trading, the benchmark DSE General Index, DGEN, ended at 4,373 with a slight drop of 12 points or 0.66%.
The new benchmark, DSEX, was down 14 points or 0.33% to 4,165. The DSE30 lost 10 points or 0.65% to 1,526.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, lost 15 points to 8,206.
Participation in trading, however, continued to scale up as investor confidence got momentum due to recent political stability, said IDLC Investment in its daily market analysis.
The turnover value at DSE increased by 0.8% to Tk8.2bn from the previous session, when it rose to 8-month high.
Despite increased participation, frequent scrip-wise movement and profit booking behavior pushed down indices, said IDLC.
It said upbeat vibe at the very beginning of the session cyclically ended flat.
Losers took a moderate lead over the gainers as out of 289 issues traded, 127 closed negative, 142 positive and 20 remained unchanged.
Market saw sufficient supply of shares as the index reached to the level that prevailed during the month of February, according to Lanka Bangla Securities.
It said despite the correction, market saw 15 securities generating gains more than 5%.
In the midst of flat movement, non-banking financial institutions gained 2.22%, driven by Midas Financing that was up by 9.8%, and Premier Leasing 8.7%.
Among the top losers, textile shed 2%, engineering 1.53%, mini cap 1.63%, pharmaceuticals 0.97% and power 0.79% on price correction.
Telecommunications and Banks advanced marginally with 0.39% and 0.10% respectively.
Bank, cement, financial institutions, energy, textiles, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications saw significant increase in trade volume.
Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) that gained more than 8% was the top turnover leader, accumulating Tk440m and making up 5.4% of the total market turnover.
It was followed by Unique Hotel and Resorts, United Airways, Summit Purbanchal Power Company Ltd, Orion Pharma, Meghna Petroleum and RN Spinning.
Mutual funds dominated the top gainers’ chart as six of them featured in the list.
The day’s top gainers were First BSRS Mutual Fund, CVO Petrochemical Refinery Limited, Premier Leasing, BSCCL, Style Craft, Reliance First Mutual Fund and ABB First Mutual Fund.
