Stocks finished marginally lower on Monday, with key index of the major bourse dipping below 5,600-mark, as investors went on selling spree in late hours.
Brokers said the market edged lower for the third straight day as some investors continued to book profit on financial issues.
Accordingly, banking witnessed the highest correction of 1.56 per cent, followed by non-bank financial institutions with 1.28 per cent, snapping the recent gains.
The market opened on positive note and the benchmark index of the major bourse rose about 24 points within first hour of trading, but failed to stay positive amid selling pressure.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 10.21 points or 0.18 per cent to settle at 5,590.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also fell 1.04 points to finish at 1,959. However, the DSE Shariah Index advanced 4.77 points to close at 1,274.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also fell to Tk 7.08 billion, which was 2.0 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 7.22 billion.
Among other major sectors, fuel & power sector posted the highest gain of 2.74 per cent, followed by food & allied with 0.63 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.43 per cent and telecommunication 0.35 per cent.
According to International Leasing Securities, investors mainly booked profit on December-ending financial stocks, especially banking and financial institutions, and channeled their fund to power, food and cement sectors.
Of the 334 issues traded on the DSE trading floor, 205 closed lower, 88 issues ended higher and 41 issues remained unchanged.
A total number of 137,319 trades were executed in the day's trading session on the DSE with trading volume of 184.11 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE reached to Tk 3,967 billion on the day which was Tk 3,962 billion in the previous session.
Khulna Power Company Limited (KPCL) topped the DSE turnover chart for the second day in a row with 7.94 million shares worth Tk 654 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were United Power, BBS Cables, Unique Hotel & Resorts and Aman Feed.
Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.91 per cent while Jute Spinners was the worst loser, losing 9.96 per cent.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, closed marginally lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 40 points to settle at 17,203 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 24 points to finish at 10,418.
The losers beat gainers as 127 issues closed lower, 69 ended higher and 30 issues remaining unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 9.11 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 293 million in turnover.
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