Stocks returned to the red amid choppy trading Wednesday, as investors were closely eyeing on the political front ahead of Zia Orphanage Trust graft case verdict.
Market operators said the market witnessed a volatile session on the back of investor skepticism regarding the political scenario centering the verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
However, a section of investors became optimistic following the news that premier bourse agreed in principle to sell shares to Shanghai-Shenzhen consortium for strategic partnership.
A consortium of two Chinese stock exchanges, - Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, leads the race to buy 25 per cent stake worth about Tk 9.92 billion to become the strategic partner of the country's premier bourse.
"Foreign and local investors will be more confident when the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges will be in a strategic tie-up with the Dhaka bourse," said a director of the premier bourse, seeking anonymity.
He noted that the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) board will sit next week again and give the final nod to the Chinese consortium's proposal.
Index fell sharply at the first hour of the trading session, but managed to recover most of the points lost in the beginning of the session. Finally it ended marginally lower.
DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went down by 12.90 points or 0.21 per cent to settle at 5,936, after recovering 79 points in the previous day.
"The market opened on selling spree, losing 50 points within half an hour, and then the opportunistic investors tried to reverse the market momentum which helped the bourse close slightly below the previous day's level," commented International Leasing Securities.
The stockbroker noted that the selling spree was initiated by liquidating the holdings from cement, engineering, textile and bank sectors while the bargain hunters were active with the issues from the life insurance, telecom and pharma sector stocks.
The two other indices closed almost flat. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, saw fractional loss of 0.03 points to close at 2216. The DSE Shariah Index ended 1.37 points lower to settle at 1,384.
CSE also returned to the red with CSE All Share Price Index - CAPSI-losing 26 points to settle at 18,348 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX - losing 19 points to finish at 11,083.
The losers beat the gainers as 116 issues closed lower, 73 ended higher and 32 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 5.73 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 167 million in turnover.
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