Dhaka stocks end flat after two-day fall

Dhaka stocks ended almost flat on Monday, after two days of negative trading in the past two straight sessions on pre-Eid sale pressure.

Market insiders said the market closed almost flat as pre-Eid sale pressure somewhat subdued.

However, many investors remained cautious as there was no specific direction on the capital market except corporate tax cut for listed banks and financial institutions, they said.

The market started on an upward trend and the key index of the DSE soared nearly 32 points within 30 minutes of trading. But rest of the session wiped out most of the early gains.

Finally, DSEX, core index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,326, advancing 3.15 points or 0.05 per cent over the previous session.

However, the other indices of the premier bourse ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 1.08 points to finish at 1953 points and DSES (Shariah) lost 1.40 points to close at 1,228 points.

Trading activities remained below Tk 5.0 billion level as total turnover on the DSE amounting to Tk 4.50 billion, which was 10 per cent higher than the previous day’s Tk 4.08 billion.

The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 338 issues traded, 157 closed lower, 137 closed higher and 44 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

United Power topped the DSE turnover chart with shares worth Tk 327 million changing hands, closely followed by Square Pharmaceuticals, Grameenphone, Pharma Aid and Alif Industries.

The port city bourse—CSE—closed lower with its CSE All Share Price Index–CAPSI—shedding 34 points to settle at 16383 and elective Categories Index–CSCX–falling  21 points to finish at 9907 points.

Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 110 issues closed lower, 68 higher and 33 remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city bourse traded 3.29 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 108 million in turnover.

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