Stocks inch down amid profit booking

After posting gains in three back-to-back sessions, stocks slightly fell on Monday amid sell pressure, as investors opted for booking profits from scrips that advanced recently. 

DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), fell by 0.06% to 6,308 points on Monday, compared to the previous trading session. 

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange, also settled on red terrain. The selected indices (CSCX) and All Share Price Index (CASPI) declined by 19 and 31 points to 11,139 and 18,631 respectively.

The market opened higher as investors continued their buying appetite for sector-specific issues with expectations of taking short-term gains. But after an hour into the trade, the key index began to descend owing to sell pressure from cautious investors, according to the daily market commentary by EBL Securities. 

Overall market participation also decreased a little as the Dhaka bourse turnover fell by 5.5% to Tk577 crore on Monday, compared to the previous session. 

Out of all the scrips, 73 advanced, 74 declined and 245 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.  

On the sectoral front, food, general insurance, and miscellaneous stocks contributed the highest 22.4%, 17.6%, and 8.3% respectively to the DSE turnover. 

Fu-Wang Food, Eastern Housing, Gemini Sea Food, and Rupali Life Insurance were some of the most traded stocks at the DSE on Monday. 

Of all the sectors, paper, IT, and jute faced the highest corrections of 1.6%, 0.9%, and 0.7% in that order. On the other hand, general insurance advanced the most with a 0.8% gain, followed by miscellaneous gaining 0.5% and services gaining 0.2%.

Miracle Industries was the top gainer with its stock price soaring by 9.95%, followed by Eastern Insurance, Yeakin Polymer, and Northern Insurance. 

Simtex Industries was the top loser with a 3.99% correction in its share price on Monday, compared to the previous session.