Stocks ended lower for the second running session Monday with turnover dropped further as investors continued to book profit amid cautious trading.
The market opened with a positive note, but could not sustain. At the end of the session, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) --- DSEX --- dipped slightly below 4,800 points mark and ended at 4,797.97 points, shedding 24.74 points or 0.51 per cent.
The others two indices also ended into red. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips lost 7.61 points or 0.45 per cent to close at 1,691.04 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) declined 7.23 points or 0.72 per cent to close at 995.72 points.
The total turnover on DSE came down to Tk 6.03 billion, registering 13.23 per cent decline over the previous session's turnover value of Tk 6.95 billion.
"Market ended lower for the second trading session, weighed down by the hastening seller on heavy-weighted stocks," said LankaBangla Securities, in its daily market analysis.
Meanwhile, some fundamental stocks were in the buying spree as price correction expedited some opportunistic buyers, the stock broker added.
"Market observed further correction, as investors were still busy taking profits from their trades," said Zenith Investments, a merchant bank.
Although, market correction is always inevitable, small corrections are not fatal but rather necessary for investors to become cautious and trade wisely, the merchant bank said.
"Despite the ongoing correction the market outlook is likely to remain positive; owing to increased participation of investors which is an indication that the market is preparing for a long term Bull Run in near future," said the merchant bank.
"As morning optimism faded out in the later part of the trading, DSEX continued to decline for the second session, resting slightly below 4,800 points mark," said IDLC Investments.
"Simultaneously, momentum slowed a bit over recent sessions and investors continued to book profit," the merchant said.
The losers took a lead over the gainers as out of 291 issues traded, 170 declined, 95 advanced and 26 issues closed unchanged on the DSE floor.
All the major sectors ended in red. Telecommunications declined the most with 0.99 per cent loss - followed by fuel & power and food & allied which went down by 0.90 per cent and 0.80 per cent respectively. Pharmaceuticals closed 0.53 per cent lower. The financial sectors - Banks and NBFIs lost least - 0.05 per cent and 0.03 per cent respectively.
Trades on basis of market contribution mainly occurred within pharmaceuticals 15 per cent, fuel & power 14.9 per cent, insurance 8.2 per cent, NBFIs 6.8 per cent and cement 5.3 per cent.
Activities decreased in the major bourse (DSE) where volume and trade were down by 16.33 per cent and 14.26 per cent respectively. A total of 0.121 million trades were executed with 111.73 million securities of trading volume.
The market capitalization of the DSE stood at Tk 2,901.69 billion against Tk 2,914.94 billion in the previous session.
Square Pharma continued to dominate the top turnover chart for the third running session with shares worth Tk 355.35 million changing hands followed by Meghna Petroleum, BSCCL, Olympic Industries and Jamuna Oil.
Standard Ceramics was also the day's highest gainer, posting a rise of 6.46 per cent while Stylecraft Ltd was the day's worst losers, slumping by 5.96 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower, with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX lost 44.18 points to close at 9,432.55 points.
Losers beat gainers 148 to 54, with 24 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 12.35 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 543.08 million.
