Stocks ended marginally lower on Sunday, after a single-day break, as cautious investors preferred to book profit on major sector issues in the later part of the session.
The market was in a positive territory in the first half of the session, but later half went down steadily amid profit booking on banking, engineering, food, power and telecom sector stocks.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 13.45 points or 0.18 per cent to settle at 7,237, after gaining 8.75 points in the previous session.
Two other indices also edged lower with the DSE 30 Index, comprising blue chips, dropped 7.94 points to finish at 2,665 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 6.46 points to close at 1,574.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, however, rose to Tk 22.57 billion, which was 22 per cent higher than the previous day's tally of Tk 18.52 billion.
Market analysts said stocks returned to the red due to the profit-booking tendency among investors as the core index is hovering at a record high level.
"Some investors remain in a profit booking mood while some followed "go-slow" approach as the key index soared substantially in recent weeks," said a merchant banker.
He noted that some investors were also rebalancing their portfolios ahead of corporate declarations of June-closing companies.
However, he said there is nothing to worry about the market correction as profit booking gives scope the investors to invest further.
Participation of investors increased due to the dominant selling pressure as investors are favoring to book profit amid concerned that a correction is overdue since the index skyrocketed, according to EBL Securities.
Top negative index contributors were Beximco Pharma, British American Tobacco, Berger Paints, Grameenphone and Beacon Pharma, accounting for 19 points fall of DSEX jointly, according to data from amarstock.com, a stock market data analyst.
Most of the sectors witnessed dismal performance with engineering saw the highest correction of 0.80 per cent, followed by banking with 0.70 per cent, food 0.40 per cent, pharma 0.40 per cent and telecom 0.20 per cent.
On the other hand, IT, cement, miscellaneous, and financial institutions gained 3.20 per cent, 1.10 per cent, 0.60 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.
Of the 376 issues traded, 230 ended lower, 113 higher and 33 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Orion Pharma was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 1.42 billion changing hands, followed by Beximco, LafargeHolcim, Shahjibazar Power and Delta Life Insurance.
The IT Company Aamra Network was the day's top gainer, rising 9.92 per cent, followed by Tosrifa Industries (9.90 per cent), Khan Brother PP Woven Bag Industries (9.72 per cent), Evince Textile (9.62 per cent) and Zaheen Spinning (9.52 per cent).
CVO Petrochemicals Refinery was the worst loser, losing 7.63 per cent despite the news that the company signed a deal with Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to produce light fuel by fractioning naphtha - a petroleum by-product.
A total number of 282,171 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 519.32 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE also dropped to Tk 5,755 billion on Sunday, down from Tk 5,770 billion in the previous session.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed marginally lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 19 points to settle at 21,126 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX shedding 10 to finish at 12,676.
Of the issues traded, 172 declined, 113 advanced and 32 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 23.82 million shares and mutual fund units with a turnover value of Tk 952 million.
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