Stocks finish flat on intermittent correction

BSS, Dhaka :
Dhaka stocks finished flat on Monday amid intermittent correction though the benchmark index maintained record position at a new level of resistance.
DSEX, the broad-based price index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), reached at 4924.52 at the session’s close. The position of the prime market reflector was a new high, but it was only 11.28 points up from Sunday’s close.
The general index gained on the day, but the rising trend lost some steam to the correction of prices in a good number of scrips of the large-cap category. Among the day’s 135 losing issues, 103 were from the large-cap group. Resultantly, the benchmark index, which was rocketing in the past two trading sessions, encountered a hard brake to narrowly escape a downturn.
The two other selective indices, however, were unable to keep their strength intact as their scrip groups suffered price corrections. The blue-chip DS30 and Shariah DSES closed marginally lower to 1889.25 and 1149.59 respectively as the price fall was moderate and irregular.
Interestingly, Z-category scrips performed better in prices as 21 issues of the category were among the day’s 141 gainers. Some investors were evidently repositioning from the large-cap and pricy scrips to low-cap and cheaper issues.
Mutual funds were also on the active demand, which resulted in price rise of 17 among 39 mutual funds traded.
Like the large-cap scrips, newly listed issues also faced major correction when 9 of this category incurred losses among 12 issues traded.
The daily transaction, however, rose to Taka 992.30 crore for 22.88 crore shares, which was 22.58 crore shares worth Taka 981.35 crore on Sunday.
A few number investors took position in corporate bond, taking two of the day’s bonds traded to the gainers’ table.
RSRM Steel became the most liquid scrip on its debut trading besides reaching at the top of the day’s gainers chart with 93.25 percent rise at close. The new company already reported Taka 4.20 crore net profit for the first quarter ended in March when the basic EPS (earning per share) was Taka 1.42.
The other major turnover leaders in value were Grameen Phone, Beximco, MJLBD and Beximco Pharma.
Apart from the debut scrip, the major advancing issues were Sino Bangla, ACI Formulation, People Leasing and BD finance.
The major losing issues included Safko Spinning, Saiham Tex, FBFIF (First Bangladesh Fixed Income Fund) and Lafarge Surma.