Stocks ended nearly flat on Monday after volatile trading as investors remained cautious and waiting for the biggest ever IPO subscription - Robi Axiata -beginning from today (Tuesday).
DSEX, the prime index of the main bourse, went up by 3.68 points or 0.07 per cent to settle at 4,871, after losing more than 37 points in the previous session.
Market analysts said investors mostly followed cautious stance due to the forthcoming initial public offerings while the bargain hunters were active on stocks which declared satisfactory earnings.
Due to the overflow of the IPOs, the secondary market has remained slow in recent weeks as investors gave their attention to the primary market to collect at least an IPO lot to book some short-term profit, said a merchant banker.
According to International Leasing Securities, the investors followed 'go slow' approach amid probable impact of second wave of Covid-19 infection which will have adverse impact on the country's economy.
The stockbroker noted that the risk-averse investors reshuffled their investment portfolios, particularly from engineering, power, general insurance and bank sectors while active presence of the bargain hunters on sector specific stocks helped the index closed green.
The market witnessed volatility as most of the investors went on sell-offs for booking profit in major sectors while bargain hunters favoured new positions in pharma stocks, commented EBL Securities.
The recent downward trend also sent the share prices of more than 75 companies to their floor prices level. The stock market regulator imposed the floor price on March 19 to curb free-fall of indices amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
Two other indices also edged up. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, saw a fractional gain of 0.27 point to finish at 1,696 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 8.37 points to close at 1,122.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, slumped to Tk 7.90 billion, which was 34 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 11.98 billion.
Among the major sectors, engineering witnessed the highest correction of 0.80 per cent, followed by banking with 0.50 per cent, power 0.50 per cent and financial institutions 0.20 per cent.
On the other hand, pharmaceuticals, food and telecom gained 1.0 per cent, 0.40 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 350 issues traded, 153 ended lower, 111 closed higher and 86 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 152,545 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 425.55 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market capitalisation of DSE also fell to Tk 3,954 billion on Monday, from Tk 3,960 billion in the previous session.
Beximco Pharma continued to dominate the turnover chart with 3.25 million shares worth Tk 456 million changing hands, followed by Square Pharma, Asia Insurance, AB Bank First Mutual Fund and Eastern Insurance.
Quasem Industries was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.97 per cent while Associated Oxygen was the worst loser, losing 8.70 per cent.
However, the Chittagong Stock Exchange ended marginally lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)-losing 15 points to close at 13,930 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX shedding 8.45 points to close at 8,390.
Of the issues traded, 126 declined, 73 advanced and 62 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 9.84 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of nearly Tk 195 million.
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