Dhaka stocks fall marginally for 2nd day

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FE Report
Dhaka stocks fell marginally for the second successive session Wednesday on profit taking, with share prices of the maximum issues declining.
Before going into the negative territory on profit taking, the market gained 20 points in the morning.
The benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) General Index (DGEN) lost 6.21 points or 0.18 per cent to close at 3403.63, after touching 3429.92 in early trading.
The broader DSE All Shares Price Index (DSI) slipped 2.10 points or 0.07 per cent to close at 2848.63 while DSE -20 blue chip index dropped 18.54 points or 0.80 per cent to close at 2294.99.
Share prices went down across the board as out of 237 issues traded, 56 gained, 179 declined and two remained unchanged.
Daily turnover rose to Tk 9.76 billion, an increase of 19 per cent over the previous session.
"Bulls took a break after record-breaking rally," said Akter H Sannamat, managing director of the Prime Finance and Investment Ltd.
"However, the investors remained cautious on mutual funds because of its ongoing hearing," he added.
The verdict of the writ petition related to mutual funds is expected to be announced Sunday next.
Individual investors filed the writ petition after the Securities and Exchange Commission, a year ago, made changes to the mutual fund rules restricting fund managers from issuing right or bonus shares.
The banking sector continued to lose its lustre for the second straight session with Dutch-Bangla Bank losing highest of 2.0 per cent. However, state-owned Rupali Bank gained 5.70 per cent.
All the non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs), except IDLC Finance and Prime Finance, edged lower. All the mutual funds went down with the whole sector falling by 3.27 per cent.
The pharmaceuticals, multinational companies and insurance companies also went down while energy and cement sectors advanced.
Summit Alliance Port Ltd (SAPL), an inland container depot, was the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 956.33 million traded.