Stocks in Bangladesh yesterday maintained their losing streak for the third consecutive day as skittish investors made fresh bets on lucrative blue-chip and large-cap shares to pocket short-term gains amid price fluctuations.

Shares of Square Pharmaceuticals, Southeast Bank, Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag Industries, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Midland Bank, Central Insurance Company, Alif Industries, Agni Systems, Prime Islami Life Insurance and Bashundhara Paper Mills drew the most investors.

But none of these companies saw double-digit growth in share prices, with Square Pharmaceuticals logging the highest gain of 1.84 percent, according to LankaBangla Financial Portal.

On the other hand, shares of Islami Bank Bangladesh, BRAC Bank, Renata United Commercial Bank, Olympic Industries, City Bank, MJL Bangladesh, Grameenphone, BAT Bangladesh and Robi Axiata showcased lacklustre performances.

This pulled down the DSEX by 0.82 percent from what it was the previous day to 5,739.07 points, marking a three-day dip in the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

Similarly, the DSES index comprising Shariah-compliant companies declined by 0.78 percent to 1,227.85 points while the DS30 index featuring blue-chip stocks slipped by 0.93 percent to 2,113.25 points.

Daily turnover at the DSE, which is an indicator of stock liquidity in the market, decreased by 18.31 percent compared to its value the previous day to stand at Tk 593.4 crore.

Block trades, meaning high-volume securities transactions that are privately negotiated and executed outside the open market, added about 5.4 percent of the day's total turnover.

BRAC Bank Ltd was the most traded share, registering individual turnover of Tk 47.6 crore.

Of the issues traded at the country's premier bourse, the prices of 81 ended higher while those of 264 closed lower and 52 did not see any price fluctuation.

The services and real estate and fuel and power sectors closed in positive territory, according to the daily market update of UCB Stock Brokerage.

Meanwhile, the engineering, non-bank financial institution (NBFI) and telecom sectors closed in negative territory, it said.

The banking sector dominated the turnover chart, contributing 20.41 percent of the day's overall trade.

Engineering experienced the highest loss of 1.84 percent followed by NBFI, telecom, bank, food and allied, and pharmaceuticals with losses of 1.75 percent, 1.28 percent, 0.96 percent, 0.77 percent and 0.69 percent respectively.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange saw a similar trend as the CASPI, the broad index of the port city bourse, edged down by 0.38 percent from the day before to settle at 16,438.27 points.