Stocks returned to the red on Wednesday after previous day’s marginal gain with falling turnover as investors followed cautious stance.The market opened with a downturn and the negative trend sustained throughout the session. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 19.26 points or 0.40 per cent to settle at 8,777.90. The two other indices also closed in the red zone. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 9.59 points or 0.51 per cent to finish at 1,869.55. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 4.96 points or 0.41 per cent to close at 1,184.08. Turnover came down to Tk 6.30 billion in the main bourse, which was 12.5 per cent lower than the previous day’s Tk 7.20 billion. The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 315 issues traded, 145 closed lower, 138 higher and 32 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor. Beximco Pharma was the day’s top turnover leader with shares of Tk 261.32 million changing hands followed by Square Pharma, KPCL, Lafarge Surma Cement and Beximco. Apex Foods was the day’s best performer, posting a rise of 9.87 per cent while First Finance was the day’s worst loser, plunging by 7.85 per cent. The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also edged lower with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX – lost 39.15 points to close at 8,923.23. Losers beat gainers 128 to 96, with 32 issues remained on the port city bourse that traded 17.20 million shares and mutual fund units with a value of Tk 517 million. -FE