Stocks posted a marginal gain on Wednesday, after volatile trading, as late hours selling pressure wiped out most of the early gains.
The market opened on upward trend and the key index of the prime bourse rose more than 32 points within 20 minutes of trading. But, rest of the session went down steadily amid selling pressure.
Finally, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 5.63 points or 0.11 per cent to settle at 4,702, after losing 61 points in the past two sessions.
Market analysts said optimistic investors were active on banking, pharmaceuticals and engineering sectors issues as their shares become lucrative following the recent correction.
A leading broker, however, said many investors remained worried amid soaring non-performing loan coupled with falling portfolio investments.
Two other indices also edged up. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, gained 0.38 point to finish at 1,617 and the DSE Shariah Index also saw a fractional gain of 0.70 point to close at 1,061.
Turnover rose to Tk 4.62 billion, which was 12 per cent higher than the previous day's turnover of Tk 4.12 billion.
The investors' activity was mostly focused on general insurance sector, grabbing 24 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by textile with 14 per cent and banking 11 per cent.
According to International Leasing Securities, the opportunist investors' active presence in the final half an hour helped the index to close in marginally positive note.
EBL Securities said the market opened on upward note, but index witnessed correction in the mid-session as shaky investors were engaged in selling specific issues preceded by recent market volatility.
The stockbroker noted that a section of investors bagged profit while others were busy in rebalancing their portfolio.
The banking sector booked the highest gain of 0.32 per cent, snapping the previous day's correction, followed by pharmaceuticals 0.16 per cent and engineering 0.15 per cent.
The non-bank financial institutions sector witnessed the highest loss of 0.96 per cent, followed by food with 0.76 per cent, power 0.28 per cent and telecomm 0.23 per cent.
Gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 352 issues traded, 167 ended higher, 134 closed lower and 51 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 137,149 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 193.37 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE stood at Tk 3,537 billion on Wednesday, from Tk 3,538 billion in the previous session.
Sonar Bangla Insurance topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 196 million changing hands, closely followed by Sinobangla Industries, SK Trims & Industries, Paramount Insurance and LafargeHolcim.
New Line Clothings was the best performer, posting a gain of 9.93 per cent while ACI was the worst loser, losing 17.79 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
However, the port city's bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, edged lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)-losing 10 points to close at 14,294 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 8.0 points to finish at 8,676.
Here too, gainers beat losers as 115 issues closed higher, 103 ended lower and 38 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 12.39 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 285 million in turnover.
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