Stocks fell for the sixth session in a row on Monday amid continued volatility with lackluster trading.
Market insiders said stocks extended losses as investors' confidence continues to erode amid ongoing bearish market trend.
After hitting 17-month low in the previous day, the key index of the major bourse rose sharply by 36 points at the beginning of the day and fell steadily during rest of the session.
Finally, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 3.25 points or 0.06 per cent to finish at 5,313 points.
DSEX lost more than 143 points or 2.62 per cent in the past six consecutive sessions.
Grameenphone and Square Pharmaceuticals -the largest and second largest market-cap listed companies -- have helped the market from incurring heavy losses, said an analyst.
GP's share price rose 1.29 per cent to close at Tk 407.60 and Square Pharma's share price soared 2.71 per cent to close at Tk 284.20 each.
"The benchmark index pulled down by mainly selling of shares from banking, power, engineering and financial institutions sectors," he said.
The banking sector witnessed the highest correction of 1.13 per cent, followed by power with 0.80 per cent, engineering 0.19 per cent and financial institutions 0.12 per cent.
The pharmaceuticals sector posted the highest gain of 1.30 per cent as the sector heavyweight Square Pharma's share price surged 2.71 per cent.
The telecommunication also gained 1.23 per cent riding on GP. Food & allied sector also closed 0.16 per cent higher.
Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, came down to Tk 4.02 billion, which was 5.42 per cent lower than the previous session's Tk 4.25 billion.
"The poor turnover reflected the absence of institutional support and some retailers remained on the sidelines ahead of the national budget," a leading broker said.
"Investors are in search of good news and preferring to stay sidelines for the time being," he added.
However, the two other indices closed marginally higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 7.55 points to settle at 1,973 and the DSE Shariah Index gained 6.84 points to close at 1,235.
The market ended almost flat after hitting the core index 17 months low in the previous day amid late hours selling spree, said EBL Securities.
Of the traded issues, 184 declined, 100 advanced and 52 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Alif Industries topped the DSE turnover chart with shares worth Tk 276 million changing hands, closely followed by Berger Paints, Nahee Aluminum Composite Panel, Intraco Refueling Station and Square Pharmaceuticals.
International Leasing Securities, said, top ten gainers' list was dominated by the small-cap stocks despite some of the companies said that they had no price sensitive information.
BD Autocars was the day's highest gainer, posting a gain of 9.98 per cent while SEML Lecture Equity Management Fund was the day's worst loser, losing 7.14 per cent.
The port city bourse CSE also ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 52 points to settle at 16,370 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 31 points to finish at 9,901 points.
Here too, losers beat gainers as 134 issues closed lower while 57 ended higher, with 30 issues remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 4.40 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 162 million in turnover.
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