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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s stocks ended almost flat on Wednesday after up-and-down movement throughout the session as investors booked some profits with cautious positioning.

The market ended flat as a section of investor bagged profit while some others were busy rebalancing portfolio ahead of earnings and dividend declarations of financial sectors, market operators said.

The investors from both sides of the trading fence were active throughout the trading session amid current volatile market situation, they added.

After witnessing volatility, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,686, losing 1.10 points or 0.01 per cent over the previous day.

The two other indices also slipped into the red. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 2.77 points to finish at 1,993 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 0.51 point to close at 1,303.

Trading activities remained almost same over the last session as total turnover stood at BDT 5.68 billion, which was 1.21 per cent lower than the previous session’s turnover of BDT 5.75 billion.

The banking sector dominated the turnover chart, grabbing 18 per cent of the day’s total turnover, followed by engineering with 17 per cent and textile 13 per cent.

Most sectors, including engineering, power, telecommunication pharmaceuticals and financial institutions ended lower while heavyweight banking and food and allied posted modest gain.

The engineering sector witnessed the highest correction of 0.54 per cent, followed by power with 0.39 per cent, telecommunication 0.34 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.28 per cent and financial institutions 0.18 per cent.

The banking sector posted the highest gain of 0.85 per cent, followed by food and allied with 0.64 per cent.

A total number of 127,295 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 123.72 million shares and mutual fund units.

The market-cap of the DSE declined slightly to BDT 4,135 billion, from BDT 4,137 billion in the previous day.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 346 traded issues, 180 declined, 115 advanced and 51 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

Monno Ceramic Industries topped the DSE turnover chart with shares worth BDT 334 million changing hands, closely followed by Singer Bangladesh, United Power, Alif Industries and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company.

Phoenix Finance First Mutual Fund was the day’s best performer, posting an 8.77 per cent gain while Savar Refractories was the day’s worst loser, losing 9.83 per cent.

Paramount Insurance was the worst loser, plunging by 13.13 per cent following its only 5.0 per cent stock dividend recommendation news.

On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) finished marginally higher with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – advancing 19 points to settle at 17,422 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX – gaining 10 points to finish at 10,553.

The losers beat the gainers as 118 issues closed lower, 93 ended higher and 35 remained unchanged.

At the CSE traded 6.60 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than BDT 195 million in turnover.

BBN/SSR/AD