Stocks closed marginally lower on Wednesday, snapping a two-day gaining streak, as cautious investors sold shares on political worries.
Market insiders said the investors apprehended political uncertainty over the verdicts in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack cases.
"The investors were closely observing the political situation and mostly followed a cautious approach," said a leading broker.
The market opened on positive note and the key index gained more than 15 points within first 10 minutes of trading. But rest of the session went down amid choppy trading.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,436, shedding 19.65 points or 0.36 points after gaining 45 points in the two straight sessions.
According to International Leasing Securities, the market ended in the red as shaky investors were selling shares following verdicts in cases filed for the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004.
Two other indices also ended in the red. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 6.54 points to end at 1,922 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 3.57 points to close at 1,274.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, remained almost same and the total turnover on the DSE amounted to Tk 8.02 billion, which was Tk 8.01 billion on the previous day.
The power sector dominated the turnover chart, grabbing 38 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by textile with 14 per cent and engineering 11 per cent.
A total number of 151,165 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 167.81 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 3,912 billion on the day which was Tk 3,918 billion in the previous session.
The engineering sector posted the highest loss of 0.81 per cent, followed by financial institutions with 0.76 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.65 per cent.
Banking, food and telecommunication also lost 0.58 per cent, 0.25 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively. Only fuel & power sector gained 1.02 per cent.
Of the 339 issues traded, 229 closed lower, 58 ended higher and 52 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Khulna Power Company continued to dominate the DSE turnover chart with 8.89 million shares worth Tk 1.24 billion changing hands. It was more than 15 per cent of the DSE's total turnover.
The other turnover leaders were Summit Power, United Power, Active Fine Chemicals and Olympic Industries.
Meghna Cement was the best performer for the second straight day, posting a gain of 9.98 per cent.
Stylecraft was the worst loser, losing 8.50 per cent, despite the company recommended a record 410 per cent stock dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2018.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 60 points to settle at 16,780 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 36 points to finish at 10,165.
The losers beat gainers as 160 issues closed lower, 56 ended higher and 24 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 10.77 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 356 million in turnover.
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