Stocks flatline after choppy trading

FE Report
Amid chopping trading, Dhaka stocks closed flat Monday with turnover falling slightly, but a new issue made exponential gains.
Khulna Printing & Packaging Ltd, which made debut on the day, attracted investors much as its share price jumped 271 per cent, despite controversy over its disclosure in the IPO prospectus.
The newcomer was also the most traded stock of the session with its turnover hitting Tk 514.24 million, accounting for 8.36 per cent of day's total turnover. A total of 15.20 million shares changed hands on the Dhaka Stock Exchange, the nation's prime bourse.
Each share of the company Monday traded between Tk 45 and Tk 29 on the DSE before closing at Tk 37.10 from its issue price of Tk 10.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) slipped marginally by 0.37 points and ended at 4,554.14 points after witnessing see-saw throughout the session.
However, the other two indices closed positive. The DS30, comprising blue chips gained 6.64 points or 0.38 per cent to close at 1,712.56 points. The DSE Shariah Index advanced 2.32 points or 0.22 per cent to close at 1,062.77 points.
The total turnover amounted to Tk 6.15 billion, which was 2.68 per cent lower compared to previous session's value of Tk 6.32 billion.
The investors' attention was mainly focused on textile, engineering and fuel and power sectors, accounting for 15.15 per cent, 14.77 per cent and 12.07 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover.
 "Pressing down the demand side, market demonstrated marginal level of sale pressure. But the switch across and focus on selective large caps still prevailed," said IDLC Investments in an analysis.
As DSEX accumulated gains from 4,350 points level in recent times, investors started pursuing cautious stance to track market movements, said the merchant bank.
Rosy garments export outlook by the state-run Export Promotion Bureau influenced re-balancing portfolio through textiles issues, reflecting incessant interest from the investors. Textile sector performed positively with 0.16 per cent gain and led the sectoral turnover ladder, said the merchant bank.
LankaBangla Securities said: "After trading mostly higher in early session, indices have moved back to the downside on the heels of hefty profit booking over the course of the day's trading session".
Most of the major sectors have turned lower, contributing to the sharp pullback in the benchmark index, it said.
Market seems to consolidate at this level after a weeklong rally, eyeing the next move in market following to quarterly declaration of stocks," said the stock broker.
The investors' interest was captured by various individual issues early in the session. But price depreciation of large cap GP wiped out early gains, said International Leasing Securities.
Zenith Investments said: "Although, the market may have moved in a lethargic way, it is likely to shrug off the weariness soon, after the short profit taking phase is over".
All the major sectors showed negative performance in the session. Telecommunication suffered the most with 2.36 per cent loss. Pharmaceuticals, fuel and power and food and allied also went down by 0.68 per cent, 0.30 per cent and 0.37 per cent respectively.
In the financial sector -- banks and NBFIs also retraced 0.73 per cent 1.07 per cent respectively.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 299 issues traded, 164 declined, 107 advanced and 28 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
The trade and volume were up by 19.06 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively. A total number of 0.148 million trades were executed with 158.65 million securities of trading volume
The total market capitalisation on DSE stood at Tk 3,041.07 billion against Tk 3,045.81 billion in the previous session.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), however, ended lower with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 55.14 points to close at 8,541.13 points.