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Stocks ended lower on Tuesday, after remaining flat in the previous day, as risk-averse investors went on profit booking sell-offs on large-cap issues.
DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, went down by 28.43 points or 0.57 per cent to settle at 4,899, after adding more than 4.0 points in the previous session.
Market operators said investors opted for booking profit on large-cap stocks which saw significant gain in the past few sessions.
Price fall of large-cap stocks like Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, Grameenphone, United Power, Beximco Pharma and British American Tobacco contributed most to the index fall.
These five companies jointly accounted for more than 18 points fall of DSE key index on Tuesday.
After hovering around 4,900 points for the last few days, stocks witnessed a sudden major fall in indices, which made investors more cautious, said a merchant banker.
He noted that many investors moved to the primary market as three IPOs, one is biggest ever, is set to hit the market soon. Many investors have already disposed of shares of other companies, while some have collected funds to join the IPO bonanza.
Many investors followed the ‘go slow’ approach due to the upcoming IPO subscription as some giant corporations are set to be listed on the bourses, said a leading broker.
He said the shaky investors went for profit booking sell-off while some investors adopted a ‘wait-and-see’ stance amid the ongoing slow market trend.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 16.53 points to finish at 1,703 and the DSE Shariah Index fell 8.35 points to close at 1,112.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, stood at Tk 9.25 billion, which was 5.0 per cent higher than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 8.81 billion.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 355 issues traded, 139 ended lower, 129 higher while 87 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 167,418 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 371.12 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market capitalisation of DSE also fell to Tk 3,980 billion on Tuesday, from Tk 3,997 billion in the previous session.
Beximco Pharma continued to dominate the turnover chart with 5.61 million shares worth Tk 746 million changing hands, followed by Asia Insurance, Brac Bank, Nitol Insurance and Associated Oxygen.
CAPM IBBL Islamic Mutual Fund was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Associated Oxygen was the worst loser, losing 9.39 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended marginally lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)—losing 53 points to close at 14,065 while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX shedding 30 points to close at 8,466.
Of the issues traded, 131 advanced, 76 declined and 55 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 11.52 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 272 million.