The market witnessed another flat session Monday with turnover moving up slightly as investors remained neutral and conservative ahead of the national budget to be placed in the parliament on June 5.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) ended at 4,378.34 points, gaining only 0.09 points after witnessing volatility throughout the session.
The other two indices outperformed the benchmark index. The DS30, comprising blue chips gained 2.03 points or 0.12 per cent to close at 1,589.40 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) also advanced 4.24 points or 0.43 per cent to close at 977.87 points.
Total turnover on DSE stood at Tk 2.36 billion, registering an increase of 29.67 per cent over the previous session's 7-month lowest turnover of Tk 1.82 billion.
"Remaining largely unchanged, investors' sentiment turned more cautious, this session," commented IDLC Investments, in its regular market analysis.
Since perfect confirmation of trend reversal lagged, skepticism prolonged further. The overall situation kept bourse in flat region and DSEX beneath 4,400 points for third session, said the merchant bank.
However, after hitting 7 months' lowest in last session, the pace of trading activity picked up a bit. Amid which, scrip specific centralization was notable, the merchant bank said.
Especially, Familytex category-change to 'A' put it in front of investors and being the mostly traded scrips of the day. Supported by this, Textile led in sectoral turnover list, capturing 16.5 per cent of the day's trade, the merchant bank added.
"Market moved up marginally, supported by buying interest in large cap. DSEX elevated a bit to its morning high of 4,393 along with the movement in large cap," said LankaBangla Securities, a stock broker.
"Though trading activities moved up slightly, volume remained at an anemic level. A confirmed up or down move in index for near future is yet to be observed, so investors are mostly, at best remained neutral and conservative," said the stock broker.
However, trading of some small and large cap stocks found some cradle Monday as selling pressure has started to even out in the market, the stock broker added.
"Traders are looking forward for some positive signs, as the market lingers in such a position that it is difficult to predict for how long the market decides to remain drab," observed Zenith Investments.
"The market witnessed another flat session though the investors' participation increased due to selling pressure to some extent," said International Leasing Securities.
The losers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 294 issues traded, 127 declined, 108 advanced and 59 closed unchanged on the DSE floor.
Most of the sectors posted loss. Among the major sectors, telecommunications gained the most with 2.42 per cent gain. Pharmaceuticals closed 0.89 per cent higher and banks closed flat. NBFIs, food & allied and fuel & power declined by 0.54 per cent, 0.33 per cent and 0.21 per cent respectively.
GP and Square Pharmaceuticals mainly pushed the telecommunication and pharmaceutical sectors into green zone while banking sector stayed
Activities increased in the major bourse (DSE) where trade and volume were up by 16.91 per cent and 28.21 per cent respectively. A total number of 0.059 million trades were executed with 58.39 million securities of trading volume.
The total market capitalisation on the DSE stood at Tk 2,850.25 billion against Tk 2,843.73 billion in the previous trading session.
Familytex (BD) was the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 130.33 million changing hands followed by Square Pharma, Lafarge Surma Cement, GP and BSRM Steels.
Salvo Chemicals was the day's highest gainer; posting a rise of 5.33 per cent while Rupali Life Insurance was the day's worst losers, slumping by 9.67 per cent.
The port city bourse -- Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), however, closed negative with its Selective Categories Index -- CSCX lost 20.97 points to close at 8,417.43 points.
Losers beat gainers 120 to 59, with 29 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 5.16 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 173.32 million.
