Stocks end flat

After gaining for ten consecutive sessions, Dhaka stocks ended the week flat with key indices remaining almost unchanged yesterday.
It was the first trading day of the holy month of Ramadan, and transactions started at 10:30am instead of 11:00am and continued till 1:30pm instead of 3:00pm.
The market started positively in the opening hours, but nose-dived in the last hour making the benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange a rocky pattern.
The DSE General Index finished the day at 6,672.96, a fall of only 0.16 points.
The gain in the non-banking financial institutions, telecom and insurance companies was offset by fall in banking, pharmaceuticals and fuel and power sector shares, Brac-EPL, an investment firm, said in its regular market analysis.
Losers beat advancers 123 to 113, with four securities remaining unchanged on the prime bourse, which traded more than 5.41 crore shares and mutual fund units.
The turnover went down by 16 percent to Tk 1,443 crore mainly because of the reduced trading hours.
Titas Gas topped the turnover leaders with more than 9.53 lakh shares worth Tk 107.29 crore. The day's other turnover leaders were LankaBangla Finance, Fareast Life Insurance, Beacon Pharma and Beximco Ltd.
Chittagong stocks also finished flat with the CSE Selective Categories Index increasing by only 0.51 points to 12,764.23.
More than 64.17 crore shares and mutual fund units changed hands on the Chittagong Stock Exchange on a value of Tk 98.53 crore.
At the end of the day, 89 securities gained, 87 declined and six remained unchanged on the port city bourse.
Beacon Pharma topped the turnover leaders with more than 15.68 lakh shares worth Tk 14.16 crore being traded. Other turnover leaders were Titas Gas, Prime Finance and Investment, Summit Power, Beximco Ltd and LankaBangla Finance.