Snapping the single-day winning streak, Dhaka stocks closed lower Thursday, driven by profit-booking by cautious investors from the sector-specific lucrative scrips.
Meanwhile, the profit booking could not pull the key index extremely down because investors took fresh bets into general insurance stocks following the recent government approval to the introduction of bancassurance in the country.
The DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), edged down by 0.6 points to settle at 6,365 against 6,366 in the previous trading session.
Meanwhile, the market turnover rose by 7.9 per cent to Tk 947 crore against the tally of Tk 877 crore in the previous session.
The general insurance topped the turnover the chart with a contribution of 21.4 per cent of the total turnover of the DSE, followed by food and allied (13.6 per cent) and engineering (9.3 per cent).
Fu Wang Food Ltd continued to dominate the turnover board with Tk 45 crore worth of its shares changing hands, followed by Rangpur Dairy & Food Products, and Yeakin Polymer Limited.
The market observed mild volatility due to sellers’ dominance across the trading floor as cautious investors preferred profit booking the recently rallied trendy scrips amid uncertainty regarding the strength of the market trend, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.
However, general insurance stocks extended their positive momentum as opportunistic investors opted to seize opportunities for short-term gain from the sector.
Sectors mostly remained flat, with the IT witnessing the highest correction of 0.7 per cent, followed by paper (0.7 per cent) and travel (0.6 per cent), while the general insurance posted the highest gain of 4.2 per cent, followed by jute (1.6 per cent) and tannery (0.5 per cent), according to EBL Securities.
As per the daily market review of Brac-EPL Stock Brokerage, the pharmaceutical experienced the highest loss of 0.24 per cent, followed by bank (0.17 per cent), engineering (0.17 per cent), fuel and power (0.14 per cent), and NBFI (0.03 per cent).
Green Delta Insurance Ltd rose 9.9 per cent to become the day’s top gainer, while Midland Bank Limited was the day’s worst sufferer with a loss of 9.5 per cent.
Out of the securities traded, 86 advanced, 98 declined and 208 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse, CSE, also settled on red terrain, with its two major indices – the selected indices (CSCX), and the all-share price index (CASPI) – falling by 0.9 points and 1.3 points respectively.
