Stocks broke a six-day rally on Thursday, as investors went on a selling spree to bag profits.
Brokers said the market faced a mild correction as investors went for profit booking after witnessing gains for six consecutive days.
"Stocks witnessed a natural correction, as investors intended to realise the profit generated from the previous six days' consecutive gain," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
The market saw a positive note for a brief period, but rest of the session went through downward trend with no sign of reversal. Finally it ended more than 15 points lower.
DSEX, the core index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at nearly 6,303, losing 15.42 points or 0.24 per cent after gaining 159 points in the past six consecutive sessions.
"The market closed in the red zone as investors shifted their tendency towards profit booking after a successful rally of six straight sessions," commented EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in an analysis.
Stocks from telecommunication, bank and cement sector faced selling pressure.
The two other indices also finished marginally lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips fell 6.60 points or 0.28 per cent to finish at 2,295. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) also lost 4.36 points or 0.31 per cent to close at 1,407.
The market activities also fell with the total turnover on DSE amounting to Tk 5.18 billion, which was 10 per cent lower than the previous day's Tk 5.76 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, the investors booked quick-gain on shares, especially on telecom, cement and bank sectors' stocks that witnessed price surges over the last few days' uptrend.
However, several issues from fuel & power, engineering and textile sectors enjoyed buoyancy, said the stockbroker.
The large-cap sectors showed mixed performances. The telecommunication sectors posted the highest correction of 1.60 per cent, followed by banking with 0.70 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.20 per cent and financial institutions 0.10 per cent.
Fuel & power, engineering and food & allied sectors gained 0.90 per cent, 0.50 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 335 issues traded, 148 closed lower, 136 ticked higher and 51 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
United Power continued to dominate the DSE turnover chart with 1.97 million shares worth Tk 383 million changing hands, followed by Dragon Sweater, Grameenphone, IFAD Autos and Baraka Power.
Legacy Footwear was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.50 per cent while SEML IBBL Shariah Fund was the day's worst loser, plunging by 3.95 per cent.
Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CAPSI- losing 40 points to close at 19502.
The Selective Categories Index - CSCX - also fell 28 points to close at 11,787 points.
Losers beat gainers as 109 issues closed lower, 90 nudged higher and 37 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 7.75 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 217 million in turnover.
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