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Stocks slipped into the red on Wednesday after volatile trading as investors remained followed cautious stance ahead of national elections.
Market operators said majority of the investors were not enough confident to put fresh stakes while some continued busy with rebalancing their portfolio.
The market opened on positive note and the core index crossed the 5,300-mark in the last hour of trading, gaining more than 16 points. But late hour’s sharp decline sent the market in almost flat zone.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,286, losing 1.82 points or 0.03 per cent over the previous day.
Two other indices—the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES)–also ended slightly lower.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 1.43 points to finish at 1,860 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 3.55 points to close at 1,222.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also fell to Tk 5.94 billion, which was 7.0 per cent lower than the previous day’s Tk 6.38 billion.
A total number of 145,317 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 155.49 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 3,836 billion on the day which was Tk 3,842 billion in the previous day.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 340 issues traded, 167 advanced, 125 advanced and 48 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Khulna Power Company topped the DSE turnover chart for the second day in a row with 3.73 million shares worth Tk 249 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were SK Trims Industries, Square Pharmaceuticals, IFAD Autos and Saiham Cotton Mills.
ML Dyeing was the best performer for the second day in a row, posting a gain of 9.89 per cent while Al-Haj Textile was the worst loser, losing 9.36 per cent.
The port city bourse CSE also closed slightly lower with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –shedding 1.12 points to settle at 16,196 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –losing 0.48 point to finish at 9,820.
The losers beat gainers as 111 issues closed lower, 99 ended higher and 29 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 8.67 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 230 million in turnover.