Stocks down for second day

Stocks closed lower for the second running session Monday amid thin market participation as most of the investors remained cautious. The market opened with positive note like previous session, but could not sustain. At the end of the session, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) --- DSEX --- ended at 4,665.56 points, shedding 21.63 points or 0.46 per cent from previous session. The other two indices also ended in the red. The DS30, comprising blue chips lost 4.07 points or 0.24 per cent to close at 1,681.25 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) went down by 6.87 points or 0.67 per cent to close at 1,012.75 points. Turnover value on DSE came down to Tk 4.01 billion, registering 21.37 per cent decline over the previous session’s value of Tk 5.10 billion. The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 291 issues traded, 136 declined, 115 advanced and 40 issues closed unchanged on the DSE floor. The market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 2,891.54 billion against Tk 2,910.47 billion in the previous session. Lafarge Surma Cement continued to dominate the top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 285.90 million changing hands followed by Square Pharma, BSCCL, Olympic, and Beximco Pharma. Safko Spinning was also the day’s highest gainer; posting a rise of 12.96 per cent following its corporate declaration while Al-haj Textile was the day’s worst losers, slumping by 7.91 per cent. The port city bourse --- the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended marginally lower with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX lost 15.32 points to close at 9,144.38 points. Losers beat gainers 100 to 80, with 38 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 9.24 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 419.86 million.