Profit taking pulls stocks down

Stocks witnessed a mild correction Tuesday, snapping five consecutive session rally, as investor booked short-term profit mainly on financial stocks.
Brokers said price correction pulled down stocks prices as short-term traders took profit mainly on NBFIs, banks and cement issues after recent rally to minimise their loss.
The market opened with a mixed trend and gradually landed to the red zone amid choppy trading. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), slipped 22.60 points or 0.52 per cent to close at 4,326.61 points, after gaining 389 points in the last five straight sessions.
The two other indices slipped into the red. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips lost 2.22 points or 0.13 per cent to close at 1,622.49 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) fell 3.76 points or 0.36 per cent to close at 1,039.24 points.
Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, also came down to Tk 5.54 billion, which was 7.0 per cent lower than the previous session's 6-month high Tk 5.96 billion.
The investors' activity was mostly focused on power, engineering and pharma - the sectors that accounted for 23 per cent, 14 per cent and 12 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover.
"The bourse faced a natural correction as some investors intended to realize positive return accumulated from last five days' consecutive gain," said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, in an analysis.  
However, Bangladesh Bank's recent circular on relaxing the provisioning requirement of mutual funds for NBFIs, after banks, encouraged some institutional investors to be in buying mood in mutual fund units, said the merchant bank.
Most of the mutual funds ended in positive zone with six emerging in top ten gainers' list.
LankaBangla Securities, a stock broker, said, "The market observed a setback as investors went for profit booking on stocks after experiencing consecutive gain".
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed marginally lower after five day rally with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 43.43 points to close at 8,137.21 points.
Losers beat gainers 140 to 93, with 11 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 15.08 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 438.78 million.
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