Dhaka stocks down as trading resumes after long recess

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FE Report
Dhaka stocks inched down Sunday amid lacklustre trading as the market opened after a recess of long nine days.
The benchmark DSE General Index (DGEN), the All Shares Price Index (DSI) and the DSE20 (DS20) blue chip index shed 7.76 points, 5.82 points and 18.73 points to close at 2536.89, 2097.96 and 2112.93 respectively.
The power and energy sector issues, however, shone on the day as the political parties pledged in their political manifestos to address the nagging power crisis, brokers said.
Trading at the DSE fluctuated throughout the session. The intra-day volatility was more than 36 points as the main index DGEN, which went into the negative territory around 30 minutes before the close of trade, rose 36.19 points in the first hour.
Of the total 204 issues traded, 43 advanced, 154 declined and seven remained unchanged.
The day's total turnover declined to Tk 1.34 billion (134 crore) from Tk 2.07 billion of December 4, just before the nine-day closure of the market. The market capitalisation was Tk 969.59 billion Sunday.
"As far as I can read the investors' minds, they think the market will remain sluggish throughout this month due to several factors including the forthcoming national election," said Akter Hossain Sannamat, managing director of the Prime Finance and Investment Limited.
The bourse saw the dull trading on the day as the investors were still in holiday mood because of the Eid hangover, he added.
About intra-day volatility, Sannamat said, "The investors were in positive mood when they came to the market. But when they saw the market failed to sustain, towards the end of trading they disposed of their holdings fearing further losses."
According to market insiders, what worried the investors most was that there was no sign of reversal of the prevailing protracted bear-run as leading investors including institutional traders chose to remain inactive.
They also said most of them now appear to stay on the sidelines until the national election is held as per schedule.
Titas Gas was the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 148.70 million traded on the day.
Summit Power, ACI Formulations, Beximco Limited, Beximco Pharma, Uttara Bank, Shinepukur Ceramics Limited, Grameen S2, ACI Limited and Summit Alliance Port Limited were the day's next other turnover leaders.
The share price of Summit Power had the day's biggest gain posting 9.74 per cent rise. The day's other top gainers were Quasem Silk, ICB Islamic Bank, Modern Dyeing, Power Grid, DESCO, GrameenS2, 6th ICB, Jamuna Oil and Rangamati Food.
The top losers were Maq Paper, Northern General Insurance, Shinepukur Ceramics Limited, Renwick Jajneswar, Nitol Insurance, Fine Foods, Pioneer Insurance, ACI Formulations, Anwar Galvanising and Meghna Shrimp.