Stocks continued to close flat for the fifth consecutive session yesterday, as current political turmoil persistently put damper on investors sentiment.
The market opened higher in the morning, which was partly spurred by the optimism ahead of corporate declaration, but the enthusiasm subsided from mid-session due to the short-term profit-booking.
After surging over 25 minutes in early trade, the benchmark index DSEX fell slightly 7 points or 0.2% to close at 4,801.
The Shariah Index DSES shed 3 points or 0.3% to 1,140. The comprising blue chips DS30 dropped 4 points or 0.3% to 1,793.
Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, lost 33 points to 8,908.
Investors, who were worried over the current political standoff, held back their investment which limited the volume of trade. Turnover at the Dhaka Stock Exchange stood at Tk309 crore, falling almost 2% over the previous session.
Pharmaceuticals and energy issues dominated the trading, accounting for 33% of the total turnover.
Almost all the sectors remained flat. Non-banking financial institutions, power and food & allied rose 0.6%, 0.5% and 0.2% respectively while cement, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication 1%, 0.5% and 0.3% respectively.
After showing positive performance over the last two sessions, heavyweight banks edged 0.3% down.
IDLC Investments said with no improvement in political front as well as investors’ sentiment, broad market faced another flat-end for the fifth consecutive sessions.
It said nevertheless, activities were mostly concentrated to large cap stocks, where seven out of top ten turnover scrips were from this category.
Losers took a lead over the gainers as out of 310 issues traded, 104 closed in positive, 144 negative and 62 remained unchanged on the DSE.
Square Pharmaceuticals was the most traded stock for the second consecutive session with shares worth about Tk17 crore changing hands, followed by ACI, BRAC Bank, IFAD Autos and Shahjibazar Power Company Limited (SPCL).
Summit Alliance Port Limited was the day’s top gainer, posting a rise of nearly 10% while Meghnapet was the day’s worst loser, declining more than 4%.
SPCL, which is now traded in the spot market since November when its share prices saw abnormal rise, continued to shine for the third straight session. Its share prices rose about 4%.
