Stocks finished marginally lower on Sunday, snapping a three-day gaining streak, as risk-averse investors opted to book profit on sector-specific stocks.
Market insiders said stocks fell as investors booked profit, particularly December year-ending stocks like bank, non-bank financial institutions and telecom.
The market opened on negative note and the downward trend continued till end of the session amid modest volatility.
Finally, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,549, shedding 24.46 points or 0.43 per cent over the previous session.
"This downward shift in the index is mainly driven by significant negative changes in telecom and banking sectors," commented LankaBangla Securities, in an analysis.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 11.13 points to finish at 1,947 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 2.57 points to close at 1,276.
Despite the market declined, the low-cap companies dominated the day's gainers' chart having Aziz Pipes on top of the list that soared 9.99 per cent.
Among them, Aziz Pipes and Monno Ceramic were traded on the spot market.
In the spot trading, an investor is allowed to purchase shares of a company only when his account has got cash money.
The securities regulator sent five companies -- Monno Ceramic Industries, Kay & Que, Aziz Pipes, Stylecraft and, Dragon Sweater and Spinning -- to spot market from August 19.
However, Dragon Sweater resumed trading on the public market on Sunday as the regulator lifts restriction on the company amid 'satisfactory' corporate disclosures.
Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, however, stood at Tk 9.0 billion, which was 10 per cent higher than the previous session's Tk 8.17 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, investors reshuffled their holdings, mostly from financial institutions, telecom and banking sectors to power, textile and cement sectors anticipating better performance in the year-end financial disclosure.
The non-bank financial institutions witnessed the highest loss of 1.71 per cent, followed by telecommunication with 1.22 per cent, banking 1.20 per cent, engineering 0.60 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.28 per cent.
The power sector witnessed the highest gain of 2.21 per cent, followed by food & allied with 0.14 per cent.
Of the 334 issues traded on the day, 197 declined, 91 advanced and 46 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 162,972 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 209.44 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE came down to Tk 3,956 billion on the day which was Tk 3,963 billion in the previous session.
Active Fine Chemicals dominated the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 716 million changing hands, followed by Khulna Power Company, Saiham Textile, Dragon Sweater and United Power.
Aziz Pipes was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.99 per cent while United Power was the worst loser, losing 12.21 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
The port city bourse CSE finished lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 85 points to settle at 17,117 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 53 points to finish at 10,373.
The losers beat gainers as 146 issues closed lower, 68 ended higher and 22 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 17.18 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 620 million.
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