Business Desk :
Stocks slipped into the red on Sunday, after a single-day break, as the risk-averse investors opted for booking profit on sector-wise issues in the later part of the session.
The market opened on a positive note and remained in green in the first half of the session, but later half went down steadily as cautious investors booked profit on sector-wise stocks.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 13.45 points or 0.18 per cent to settle at 7,237, after gaining about 8.75 points in the previous session.
Two other indices also edged lower with the DSE 30 Index, comprising blue chips, falling 7.94 points to finish at 2,665 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 6.46 points to close at 1,574.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, however, rose to Tk 22.57 billion, which was 22 per cent higher than the previous day’s tally of Tk 18.52 billion.
Market analysts said late hours profit booking on sector-wise stocks pulled the market down as the key index hovering around the highest level.
Investors trimmed their positions in the recent outperformers while some were closely observing the market movement, said a merchant banker.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 376 issues traded, 230 ended lower, 113 higher and 33 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Orion Pharma was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 1.42 billion changing hands, followed by Beximco (Tk 991 million), LafargeHolcim (Tk 912 million), Shahjibazar Power (Tk 815 million), and Delta Life Insurance (Tk 598 million).
The IT company Aamra Network was the day’s top gainer, rising 9.92 per cent while CVO Petrochemicals Refinery was the worst lower, losing 7.63 per cent.
A total number of 282,171 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 519.32 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market cap of DSE also dropped to Tk 5,755 billion on Sunday, down from Tk 5,770 billion in the previous session.
