Stocks witnessed another flat session on Tuesday as investors mostly followed cautious stance ahead of June-closing and budget approval.
Market analysts said most of the investors adopted cautious stance as they awaited the government move to review the proposed tax measures for listed companies.
A leading broker said the market witnessed volatility after unveiling the proposed budget as some budget proposals went against listed companies.
The Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed, among others, imposition of 15 per cent additional tax on retained earnings and reserves, if the amount exceeds 50 per cent of the paid-up capital of the company.
The finance minister also proposed imposition of 15 per cent tax on stock dividend to promote cash dividend as part of efforts to increase money flow into the stock market.
In the wake of strong criticism from market stakeholders, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman hinted at the possibility of reviewing the proposals announced in the budget for fiscal year (FY) 2019-20.
"This is quite challenging as retained earnings is simply undistributed net profit after tax, which is already taxed", commented City Bank Capital Resources, in its budget reaction.
After witnessing volatility throughout the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 1.80 points or 0.03 per cent, finishing the day at 5,380.
Two other indices also closed slightly higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 2.66 points to finish at 1,896 and the DSE Shariah Index gained 0.77 point to close at 1,230.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, rose to Tk 4.53 billion, which was 20 per cent higher than the previous day's turnover of Tk 3.78 billion.
Meanwhile, the board of directors of Al-Haj Textile Mills laid-off its factory for 30 days with effect from Tuesday.
The board took the decision due to severe fall in volume of sales as a result of lack of demand in the market and shortage of storage facilities for holding stock of finished goods in the godown and also severe blockage of working capital, said an official disclosure on Tuesday.
The port city's bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended marginally higher with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -advancing 6.62 points to settle at 16,477 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 3.16 points to finish at 9,985.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 113 issues closed lower, 97 ended higher and 52 remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor.
The port city bourse traded 33.41 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 963 million in turnover.
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