Stocks ended almost flat on Monday as investors went on late hours selling spree on sector-wise stocks.
Market insiders said a section of investors sold shares from food, power and pharma sectors while some took position on financial institutions, engineering and telecommunication stocks, taking the market in the flat territory.
Food and allied sector witnessed the highest loss of 1.49 per cent, followed by power 1.27 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.17 per cent.
The non-bank financial institutions posted the highest gain of 1.73 per cent, followed by engineering 0.72 per cent, telecommunication 0.34 per cent and banking closed flat.
Meanwhile, listed companies with low capitalisation continued to dominate the gainers' chart though they had no price sensitive information (PSI).
CVO Petrochemical Refinery, with a paid-up capital of Tk 252.45 million, was the day's top gainer, posting 9.94 per cent gain.
Asia Pacific Insurance was the second highest gainer as the share price jumped 9.89 per cent. Its paid-cap is Tk 423.50 million.
Prime Textile was the third highest gainer, soaring 9.74 per cent, closely followed by Generation Next Fashion with 9.58 per cent, Karnaphuli Insurance 8.78 per cent, Rahim Textile 8.51 per cent, BGIC 7.81 per cent, Nurani Dyeing 6.11 per cent, Al-Haj Textile 5.73 per cent and Intech 5.58 per cent.
The DSE also served a show-case notice to some of the companies several times. The companies also informed the premier bourse that they have no price sensitive information.
"We have brought the low-cap companies under scanner. We are looking into how they generated such abnormal gains," said a DSE director, seeking anonymity.
He noted that even after formation of the inquiry committee against some of them, the prices of many low-cap companies have not stopped rising, which might cause the investors to incur massive losses.
Some retail investors have already burnt their fingers as the market remained volatile over the price hike of low-cap companies, he pointed out.
The market opened higher and the key index of the major bourse soared 44 points within the first hour of the trading session. But rest of the session went down steadily.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 0.95 point or 0.01 per cent to settle at 5,369.
According to International Leasing Securities, the market ended flat amid choppy trading as late hour selling spree eroded most of the early gains.
The DSE Shariah Index also advanced 1.12 points to close at 1,240 points. However, the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 1.37 points to close at 1,888 points.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, rose to Tk 5.50 billion, which was 6.60 per cent higher than the previous day's Tk 5.16 billion.
"This positive shift in the index is mainly driven by significant positive changes in most of the large-cap sectors like financial institutions, engineering and telecommunication," commented LankaBangla Securities.
Of the 337 issues traded, 183 closed higher, 117 ended lower and 37 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
IFAD Autos dominated the turnover chart with 4.04 million shares worth Tk 537 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were United Power, Khulna Power Company, SK Trims Industries and BBS Cables.
However, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) ended marginally higher with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - advancing 62 points to settle at 16,545 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 36 points to finish at 10,020.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as 139 issues closed higher, 73 ended lower and 32 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 7.98 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 306 million in turnover, after hitting second highest turnover recorded on the previous day.
babulfexpress@gmail.com