Stocks yesterday shed 57.93 points after a three-day rising streak upon news that the issue of selecting Dhaka Stock Exchange's strategic partner will drag on further.

Last month, the DSE board unanimously approved a proposal from a consortium of Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange for a 25 percent stake of the premier bourse and become its strategic partner.

The proposal was forwarded to the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission for its final approval. The regulator yesterday sought a fresh proposal from the Chinese consortium addressing all of BSEC's concerns.

“Investors are seriously frightened by this tussle between the DSE and the BSEC,” said the chief executive of a prominent broker requesting anonymity.

The fact that the stock market regulator is dragging its feet in giving its approval to a winning proposal has dented investor confidence, he added. Subsequently, DSEX, the benchmark index of the DSE, yesterday closed at 5,663.76 points, down 1.01 percent from the previous day.

In another development, turnover, an important indicator of the stock market, shot up 86.33 percent from the previous day to Tk 2.75 crore, on the back of a block trade by Summit Power. Turnover of DSE stood at Tk 512.41 crore, which was 86.33 percent higher than the previous days' Tk 2.75 crore, riding on block trade of Summit power.

As announced on March 6, Summit Power transferred 7.02 crore of its shares held by Summit Holdings to Summit Corporation for a total of Tk 259.78 crore. Each share was valued at Tk 37.

Summit Power share traded at Tk 35.8 on March 6. It closed yesterday at Tk 35.4, up from Tk 35.2 the previous day.

“Investors remained cautious and adopted a wait-and-see approach,” said EBL Securities in its daily market analysis.

Among the major sectors, non-bank financial institution lost 2.09 percent, followed by bank at 1.51 percent, textile at 1.44 percent, engineering 1.17 percent and telecom at 0.71 percent.

Of the 336 issues that traded on the premier bourse, 50 advanced and 258 declined, while 28 remained unchanged.

Queen South Textile Mills topped the turnover chart with its transaction of 34.86 lakh shares worth Tk 12.97 crore. Fortune Shoes, Monno Ceramic, LankaBangla Finance and Apex Foods respectively rounded off the top five spots.

SEML Lecture Equity Management Fund was the best performer, posting a gain of 9.45 percent, followed by SEML IBBL Shariah Fund, EBL NRB Mutual Fund and Reliance One.

United Finance was the worst loser, shedding 11.76 percent, followed by Islami Insurance, Imam Button, Meghna Pet Industries and Sonargaon Textiles.

It was a similar narrative over at the port city: its benchmark index, CSCX, fell 112.81 points, or 1.1 percent, to finish at 10,550.71 points.

The port city bourse traded 50.90 lakh shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 12.32 crore.

Losers beat gainers as 34 advanced and 176 declined, while 19 finished unchanged on the Chittagong Stock Exchange.