Dhaka stocks ended almost flat on Wednesday after volatile trading as investors were mostly on selling mood with cautious positioning.
Analysts said some investors preferred to take the cautious approach while some others continued with selling binge amid ongoing dividend declarations, making the market flat.
Meanwhile, five sponsor shareholders, 11 sponsor directors, one director and one shareholder of Padma Islami Life Insurance declared to sell more than 17.41 million shares collectively which is 44.78 per cent of the total paid-up capital.
The share sale is subject to approval by the competent authorities, said a posting on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
The disclosure by Padma Life Insurance's sponsor-directors also hit investors' sentiment, said a leading broker.
The market opened on positive note and the key index of the major bourse rose about 29 points within first 30 minutes of trading. But rest of the session eroded almost all the early gains.
Finally, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 3.96 points or 0.07 per cent to close at 5,390 over the previous day.
According to International Leasing Securities, the market passed a volatile session as the investors were cautious on current market scenario.
The stockbroker noted that some investors were selling shares from life insurance, textile and cement sectors while some took position on general insurance, telecom, engineering, power and pharma sector stocks, taking the market in the flat zone.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also advanced 6.20 points to end at 1,897. However, the DSE Shariah Index saw a fractional loss of 0.83 point to close at 1,240 points.
The daily turnover on DSE stood at Tk 5.14 billion, which was 5.54 per cent higher than the previous day's one month lowest turnover of Tk 4.87 billion.
Telecommunication posted the highest gain of 0.92 per cent, followed by engineering 0.88 per cent, power 0.60 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.39 per cent, banking 0.04 per cent and financial institutions 0.03 per cent.
Only food and allied sector saw 0.07 per cent correction.
Of the 336 issues traded, 171 closed higher, 131 closed lower and 34 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 110,081 trades were executed in the day's session with a trading volume of 127.64 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE rose to Tk 3,880 billion on the day which was Tk 3,866 billion in the previous session.
Khulna Power Company dominated the turnover chart for eight straight sessions with 2.58 million shares worth Tk 307 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were IFAD Autos, Shasha Denims, Republic Insurance Company and Active Fine Chemicals.
KDS Accessories was the best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Central Pharmaceuticals was the worst loser, losing 7.93 per cent.
However, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) returned to the red with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 23 points to settle at 16,557 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 16 points to finish at 10,029.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as 106 issues closed lower, 105 ended higher and 24 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 11.05 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 911 million in turnover.
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