Stocks end flat on selling spree

Stocks ended flat yesterday, as investors went for selling shares and mutual fund units to bag profits.
DSEX, the benchmark general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, rose 7.42 points or 0.16 percent to close at 4,594.33.
DSES, the shariah index of the DSE, lost 1.95 points or 0.19 percent to close at 1,019.89.
“Market acted largely volatile with a flat gain at the closing as investors continued to take some cash-offs,” commented LankaBangla Securities.
Banks, mutual funds and financial institutions outshined in the market after remaining beaten for a prolonged period, the stockbroker said.
To infuse dynamism in the capital market, the government has relaxed the regulation on investment in treasury bonds for non-resident foreign currency accounts on demand of foreign investors, it said.
Multinational companies' dominance seemed to slow a bit lately, along with volatility appearing to become stronger with 50 stocks posting above 3 percent fall in prices, said IDLC Investments.
Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, declined 14.21 percent to Tk 537 crore from the previous day.
Turnover remained concentrated to a few stocks—Lafarge Surma Cement, Square Pharma and Grameenphone—which accounted for 41 percent of the day's turnover.
Gainers took a marginal lead over the losers as 140 advanced, 131 declined and 26 issues remained unchanged out of the 297 issues that traded on the DSE floor.
After remaining in the red for the last couple of sessions, banks posted 1.64 percent gain, featuring four of its issues in the top 10 gainers. AB Bank posted the highest gain of 9.6 percent.
Among the other major sectors: non-bank financial institutions and telecoms advanced 0.24 percent and 0.16 percent.
Foods saw a sharp decline with a loss of 2.58 percent, power 1.34 percent and pharma 0.56 percent.
A total of 0.87 lakh trades were executed with 8.22 crore shares and mutual fund units changing hands on the Dhaka bourse.
Lafarge Surma Cement dominated the turnover chart with 1.26 crore shares worth Tk 78 crore changing hands, followed by Grameenphone, Heidelberg Cement, Padma Oil and Olympic Industries.
Northern Insurance was the day's worst loser, slumping by 9.17 percent.