Stocks end flat after bumpy ride

Stocks finished almost flat on Sunday after volatile trading as investors booked some profits with cautious positioning.
Brokers said the market finished flat as a section of investors bagged profit while some others were busy rebalancing portfolio ahead of earnings declarations.
"Some investors preferred profit booking on stocks that saw substantial gain in the recent upsurge, while some others took position on sector specific stocks, taking the market in the flat zone," said a leading broker.
The market opened on upward trend and the key index of the major bourse crossing the 5,400-mark, gaining 45 points in the middle of the session.
But profit booking sale pressure in the later part of the session led the prime index to close almost flat.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,366 points, advancing only 3.74 points or 0.06 per cent.
"This positive change in the index is mainly driven by positive movement in the telecommunication, pharmaceuticals and engineering sectors," said LankaBangla Securities.
Accordingly, telecommunication posted the highest gain of 1.03 per cent, followed by pharmaceuticals with 0.28 per cent and engineering 0.18 per cent.
The two other indices edged up. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 2.67 points to finish at 1,929 and the DSE Shariah Index gained 5.90 points to close at 1,267.
"The market closed in the flat as the investors booked profit in the later part of the trading session," commented International Leasing Securities.
According to EBL Securities, beginning the fiscal year (FY) 2018-19 has displayed optimism among investors as market turnover sustained above Tk 8.0 billion-mark.
The stockbroker noted that investors from both sides of the trading fence were active throughout the trading session.
Trading activities remained almost the same over the last session as the total turnover stood at Tk 8.92 billion, which was 1.10 per cent lower than the previous session's seven-month highest turnover of Tk 9.02 billion.
Among the major sectors, fuel & power witnessed the highest loss of 1.03 per cent, followed by food & allied with 0.99 per cent, banking 0.46 per cent and financial institutions 0.44 per cent.
Of the traded issues, 165 declined, 128 advanced and 46 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The newly listed Bashundhara Paper Mills topped the DSE turnover chart with shares worth Tk 666 million changing hands, followed by Ratanpur Steel, United Power, BBS Cables and Alif Manufacturing Company.
The port city bourse CSE also finished marginally higher with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - advancing 12 points to settle at 16,517 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - gaining 8.88 points to finish at 9,992.
The gainers beat losers as 109 issues closed higher, 104 ended lower, with 24 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 13.41 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 449 million.

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