Stocks close flat amid reduced trading hours

Dhaka stocks ended flat on Sunday amid thin turnover as trading was disrupted on the prime bourse following a technical problem in its trading server.
Following the unwanted technical glitch, DSE trading took place  for only 1 hour and 40 minutes instead of four hours. Trading, that usually takes place between 10:30am and 2:30pm, started at 2:20pm and ended at 4pm.
Amid the reduced trading hours, Dhaka stocks closed flat with DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, finished at 4,484.62 points, gaining 1.34 points or 0.02 per cent.
However, DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 0.98 points or 0.05 per cent to close at 1,682.44 points. DSES index declined 1.52 points or 0.14 per cent to end at 1,081.40 points.
Reduced trade hours affected the overall market participation and turnover settled to only Tk 3.43 billion on DSE, which was 56 per cent lower than previous session's Tk 7.79 billion.
The investors' attention was mostly focused on power, engineering and service - the sectors that accounted for 26 per cent, 13 per cent and 12 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover.
Trading was halted from the beginning of the day and the exchange didn't resume operation up to 2:20pm. After the beginning of the trade, stocks traded over an extended period of time for more than one and a half an hour till 4pm, brokers said.
"Investors attention was grabbed by fuel and power sector companies following the news of enlisting 10 other state-run companies in the sector," said International Leasing Securities, in an analysis.
Large-cap sectors showed mixed performance. NBFIs experienced the highest correction by losing 1.14 per cent. Telecommunication and pharma saw correction of 0.47 per cent and 0.44 per cent.
Banks gained 0.98 per cent followed by power which went up by 0.89 per cent. Cement went up marginally by 0.02 per cent.
Losers took a marginal lead over the gainers as out of 300 issues traded, 136 declined, 133 advanced and 31 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
The Selective Categories Index - CSCX of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), gained 0.43 points to close at 8,454.35 points.
Losers beat gainers 128 to 80, with 27 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 23.57 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover of Tk 813.27 million.
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