Stocks break four-day winning streak

FE Report
Stocks closed lower Sunday, snapping a four-day winning streak, as risk-averse investors opted for quick-profit on sector specific stocks.
Market insiders said the investors sold shares and mutual fund units to bag some profits on stocks that saw substantial gains in the past few sessions, finishing the market in the red territory.
"The market broke the recent gaining spell as investors mostly preferred to book quick gain on their investment over the last few weeks' price surge," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
After reaching 23 months' high in the previous session, the key index of the major bourse crossed the 4,900-mark within the first hour of trading, but failed to sustain that level amid profit booking sale pressure, ultimately ended more than 31 points lower.
By the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went down by 31.69 points or 0.65 per cent to settle at 4,861.12, after adding nearly 71 points in the past four consecutive sessions.
"After rising more than 230 points in the recent rally, stocks showed meager correction amid mixed trading behavior among the investors," said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its regular market commentary.
The two other indices also edged lower. The DS30 comprising blue chips fell 11.48 points or 0.64 per cent to finish at 1,784.18. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 6.79 points or 0.58 per cent to close at 1,154.57.
Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, came down to Tk 8.24 billion on the DSE, which was 28 per cent lower than the year's second highest turnover recorded on Thursday.
Overall activities remained confined on, engineering, textile and pharmaceuticals sectors, where they captured 22 per cent, 17 per cent and 15 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover value.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, "The first trading session of the week observed profit taking from investors and most issues experienced corrective pullback in price after a major rally in last two weeks".
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, said, "The market broke the gaining spell, as investors opted for booking some profit generated in recent rally".
Among the major sectors, food and allied posted the highest loss of 1.36 per cent, followed by banks 0.81 per cent and telecommunication 0.70 per cent.
Engineering, non-bank financial institutions, pharmaceuticals and fuel and power also lost 0.59 per cent, 0.55 per cent, 0.34 per cent and 0.19 per cent respectively.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also finished lower after four days with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX -losing 58.76 points or 0.64 per cent to settle at 9,092.90.
Losers beat gainers as 153 issues closed lower, 69 closed higher and 33 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 19.96 million shares and mutual fund units' worth over Tk 474 million in turnover.
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