Stocks end flat after roller-coaster ride

Stocks on Wednesday ended flat after a roller-coaster ride on alternate bouts of buying and selling amid growing economic worries.

The market opened on a choppy note in the morning as investors remained cautious ahead of the Bangladesh Bank’s monetary policy statement announcement.

The DSEX moved in a range of 31 points, showing an intraday high of 6,329 and a low of 6,298. At close, it was marginally up 6 points or 0.09 per cent to close at 6,317, breaking losses of the previous three day sessions.

Among other indices, the Shariah-based DSES index rose 2.56 points or 0.18 per cent to settle at 1,381 but the blue-chip comprising the DS30 index edged 1.46 points or 0.06 per cent lower at 2,293.

“Dhaka stocks managed to settle in green trajectory but continue to remain volatile as investor concerns loomed around rising Covid infections and weak trend in global market,” said EBL Securities in a note.

Out of the 382 issues traded, 193 advanced, 123 declined, and 66 remained unchanged.

Besides, bourses observed a further decline in participation, while turnover has decreased by 4.3 per cent and stood at Tk 690 crore as against Tk 730 crore in the previous session. On the sectoral front, textile (14.7 per cent) issues exerted the highest turnover followed by bank (13.4 per cent) and miscellaneous (12.3 per cent) stocks.

Most of the sectors displayed mixed performance, out of which paper (4.5 per cent), travel (0.8 per cent) and cement (0.8 per cent) exerted the most positive returns, while services (-1.0 per cent), miscellaneous (-0.6 per cent), and tannery (-0.6 per cent) exerted the most negative returns on the bourse.

Beximco was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 44 crore changing hands, followed by Shinepukur Ceramics Tk 25 crore, JMI Hospital Requisite Tk 18 crore, Alif Manufacturing Company Tk 17 crore and Sonali Papers Tk 15 crore.

Meghna Pet Industries, a Z-category company, was the top gainer, posting a 9.96 per cent rise while Bangladesh National Insurance was the day’s worst loser, losing 1.98 per cent.

The port city bourse, CSE, also, settled in green terrain. The selected indices (CSCX) and All Share Price Index (CASPI) have advanced by 6.1 and 11.2 points respectively.

Of the issues traded, 118 declined, 112 advanced and 47 issues remained unchanged on the CSE. The CSE turnover stood at Tk 38 crore.