Stocks end flat on eve of Eid break

Dhaka stocks ended flat on Thursday, the last trading session before a four-day Eid-ul-Azha holidays and weekends.

Uncertainty regarding concern over the macroeconomic front coupled with a depreciating taka kept market gains in check, dealers say.

The benchmark DSEX index saw a fractional rise of 0.9 points to settle at 6,367.

The DS30 Index, which consists of the blue-chip companies, fell 1.3 points to 1387 and the DSES Index, which represents Shariah-based listed firms, shed 6 points to 2,293.

“Apprehensive investors stayed cautious amidst several macroeconomic headwinds. The market outlook remains gloomy as investors remained concerned about several macroeconomic issues namely nationwide power outages due to gas shortages, inflationary pressure, depreciating currency, rising Covid cases etc,” said the EBL Securities in a note.

On the sectoral front, textile (14 per cent) issues exerted the highest turnover followed by Financial Institutions (11.7 per cent) and Miscellaneous (10.2 per cent) stocks.

Sectors displayed mixed returns, out of which Textile (0.9 per cent), IT (0.7 per cent ) and Financial Institutions (0.7 per cent ) generated positive returns, while telecommunication (-1.6 per cent ), paper & printing (-1.3 per cent ) and travel (-0.7 per cent ) exerted the most negative returns on the bourse today.

Out of the 386 issues traded, 166 advanced, 149 declined, and 71 remained unchanged on the DSE.

The port city bourse, CSE, also, settled in green terrain. The selected indices (CSCX) and All Share Price Index (CASPI) stood marginally advanced by 0.3 and 2.4 points respectively.