Stocks post marginal gain after bumpy ride

Stocks posted a slight gain on Sunday, after a sharp rise in the previous session, as late hours selling spree wiped out early gains.
Trading on both the bourses remained closed on Monday due to Shabe-barat holiday.
Market analysts said some investors showed buying appetite after sharp correction while some were busy with rebalancing portfolio amid ongoing earnings declaration, taking the market in the flat territory.
The institutional investors followed cautious stance amid liquidity shortage and confidence in the market, reflecting lower turnover, said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
The market opened on positive note and the key index rose more than 31 points within first hour of trading. But rest of the session eroded most of the initial gains.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,323, advancing 2.32 points or 0.04 per cent over the previous day.
The DSE Shariah Index also gained 3.60 points to close at 1,231. However, the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 4.63 points to finish at 1,892.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, however, remained almost same as total turnover stood at Tk 3.51 billion, which was Tk 3.52 billion in the previous session.
According to EBL Securities, quarterly earnings and corporate declarations from several companies satisfied investors' expectation and kept buying sector-specific stocks.
A total number of 102,936 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 84.25 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE rose to Tk 3,963 billion on Sunday, from Tk 3,951 billion in the previous day.
International Leasing Securities said the investors' attention was mainly on telecom, financial institutions, power, textile, pharma and food sectors' issues.
Telecommunication posted the highest gain of 1.55 per cent, followed by financial institutions with 1.02 per cent, power 0.68 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.19 per cent, and food 0.09 per cent.
The engineering and banking sector lost 0.25 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively.
Out of 345 issues traded, 143 advanced, 142 declined and 60 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Top ten turnover companies captured nearly 39 per cent of the day's total turnover with Fortune Shoes topped the turnover chart with 7.68 million shares worth Tk 286 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were United Power, Monno Ceramic Industries, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company and National Tubes.
Standard Ceramic was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 8.75 per cent while Mercantile Insurance was the worst loser, losing 6.92 per cent.
The port city bourse CSE also ended almost flat with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -advancing 4.87 points to settle at 16,269 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 2.63 points to finish at 9,845.
The gainers beat losers, as 102 issues closed higher, 96 ended lower and 34 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 18.56 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 489 million in turnover.

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