Stocks slipped into the red on Monday, snapping a three-day gaining streak, as risk-averse investors opted for quick-profit on major sectors' shares.
Brokers said the market faced selling pressure as investors remained mostly busy with booking quick-profit on stocks which saw price surged in the past three days rally.
The retail investors went for booking profit, particularly on banking and financial institutions stocks ahead of Ramadan, which triggered a selling pressure across the market, said a leading broker.
Stocks fell as most of the investors preferred booking profit on major stocks ahead of Ramadan, commented EBL Securities.
The market opened on negative note and the downward trend continued until end of the session with choppy trading in the opening hour.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went down by 52.82 points or 0.98 per cent to settle at 5,342, after adding 219 points in the past three consecutive sessions.
Following the government's market supportive measures, the DSEX rose 219 points in the past three consecutive days.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 20.45 points to finish at 1,881 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 6.97 points to close at 1,233.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, , also fell to Tk 4.67 billion, which was 13 per cent lower than the previous day's nearly two months' highest turnover of Tk 5.35 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities said the investors opted to book quick gain on shares that witnessed price surges over the last few sessions.
All the large-cap sectors witnessed correction with non-bank financial institutions posted the highest loss of 1.90 per cent, followed by power with 1.32 per cent and engineering 0.98 per cent.
Telecommunication, food, banking and pharma sectors also lost 0.95 per cent, 0.93 per cent, 0.85 per cent and 0.35 per cent respectively.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -shedding 108 points to settle at 16,394 points and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -losing 63 points to finish at 9,925.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 167 issues closed lower, 54 ended higher and 15 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 7.78 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 203 million in turnover.
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