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Stocks end lower despite extended trading time

FE Report | Thursday, 13 September 2018


Stocks ended marginally lower on Wednesday after choppy trading as risk-averse investors opted for booking profit on large-cap stocks.
Market insiders said a section of investors went on late hours selling spree, particularly banking, financial institutions and telecom stocks, taking the market in the negative territory.
Meanwhile, the trading time extended by 30 minutes to close at 3:00 pm on the day due to the inaugural ceremony of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission's silver jubilee programme.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the week-long event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.
The market showed upward movement in the beginning of the session, but failed to sustain the momentum as the session progressed, eventually ending marginally lower.
According to International Leasing Securities, the market started with upbeat note but morning optimism reversed in later hours as the investors involved in profit booking in banking, financial institutions and telecom sectors, pushing down the market.
The stockbroker noted that trading activities increased as the bargain hunters took position on lucrative price levels in sector-wise stocks.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 14.12 points to settle at 5,529 points.
"Stocks closed lower due to investors' profit booking tendency on December-ending companies like banking, financial institutions and telecommunication stocks," commented EBL Securities.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also fell 6.43 points to finish at 1,932. However, the DSE Shariah Index advanced 4.32 points to close at 1,275.
The stockbroker noted that investors sold shares from large-cap sectors to rebalance their portfolio, reflecting their lack of confidence on the market.
Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, however, rose to Tk 8.61 billion, which was 20 per cent higher than the previous session's Tk 7.14 billion.
The engineering sector dominated the turnover chart, grabbing 21 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by power with 17 per cent and pharma 16 per cent.
According to LankaBangla Securities, the downward shift in the index is mainly driven by significant negative changes in the large-cap sectors like banking, financial institutions and telecommunication.
Accordingly, banking witnessed the highest loss of 1.50 per cent, followed by financial institutions with 1.30 per cent and telecommunication 1.10 per cent.
On the other hand, engineering, power and food sectors posted a gain of 1.40 per cent, 0.90 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.
Of the 333 issues traded, 185 declined, 108 advanced and 40 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 158,605 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 188.52 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE came down to Tk 3,948 billion on the day which was Tk 3,953 billion in the previous session.
Khulna Power Company topped the turnover chart for the second straight day with 6.99 million shares worth Tk 812 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Active Fine Chemicals, BBS Cables, United Power and Nahee Aluminum Composite Panel.
Intech Limited was the best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while National Housing Finance was the worst loser, losing 8.45 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also edged lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 35 points to settle at 17,059 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 22 points to finish at 10,338.
The losers beat gainers as 134 issues closed lower, 91 ended higher and 20 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 10.81 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 424 million in turnover.

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