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DSE turnover hits nearly three-month low

Stocks rebound on GP, Square Pharma


FE Report | March 20, 2019 00:00:00


The daily trade turnover on the prime bourse came down to Tk 4.38 billion on Tuesday, hitting nearly three months low, as most of the investors were reluctant to make fresh investment in stocks.

Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, stood at Tk 4.38 billion on the country's premier bourse, slumping further by 8.0 per cent over previous day's mark of Tk 4.76 billion.

It was the lowest single-day transactions since December 26, 2018, when the turnover totaled a record Tk 3.88 billion.

Market analysts said institutional investors mostly followed 'wait-and-see' approach amid liquidity shortage while small investors were not confident enough to inject fresh fund, taking the market turnover to nearly three months low.

The institutional investors are in hands-off position as they fear of the liquidity pressure in coming days amid soaring interest rates in the banking sector, said an analyst.

However, stock index rebounded after sharp decline in the previous day as some optimistic investors started taking position in the undervalued stocks.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 26.39 points or 0.47 per cent to finish at 5,631 after losing nearly 51 points in the previous day.

The DSES (Shariah) index also gained 9.91 points to settle at 1,293.

However, the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 3.21 points to finish at 2014 points.

The market came back to positive trend with the positive movement of Grameenphone and Square Pharmaceuticals, said Sheltech Brokerage.

Turnover, another important indicator of the market, fell to Tk 4.38 billion, which was 8.0 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 4.76 billion.

According to International Leasing Securities, the bargain hunters took position on lucrative price levels, particularly in telecom, financial institutions, and engineering stocks which helped the index to close in green.

The stockbroker noted that the shaky investors opted to liquidate their holding of shares from food, miscellaneous, pharma and cement sectors to escape further losses.

A total number of 112,514 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 87.15 million shares and mutual fund units.

The market-cap of the DSE declined slightly to Tk 4,177 billion, from Tk 4,179 billion in the previous day.

Most of the major sectors posted gained with telecommunication saw the highest gain of 0.90 per cent, followed by engineering with 0.81 per cent, financial institutions 0.66 per cent, banking 0.16 per cent, banking 0.16 per cent and power 0.13 per cent.

Food & allied and pharmaceuticals sectors lost 2.88 per cent and 0.18 per cent respectively.

The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 346 issues traded, 233 closed higher, 81 ended lower and 32 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - shedding 64 points to settle at 17,209 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX losing 41 points to finish at 10,432.

Here too, the gainers beat the losers as 136 issues closed higher, 64 ended lower and 34 remained unchanged.

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