Dhaka stocks remain steady

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FE Report
Dhaka stocks remained steady Sunday amid persistent decline in turnover, turning the trading bearish.
Insurance issues, however, marked significant rise amid a strong rumour that the companies will raise their paid-up capitals.
Of them, Asia Pacific Insurance, Mercantile Insurance, Agrani Insurance, Global Insurance, Paramount Insurance, Prime Insurance rose by 14.32 per cent, 10.90 per cent, 6.66 per cent, 8.06 per cent, 7.55 per cent and 7.46 per cent respectively.
Trading resumed on the day after a three consecutive day gap due to public holiday on account of International Mother Language Day (Thursday) and weekly holidays (Friday and Saturday).
The trade, however, began with a positive note from the very outset and the benchmark the Dhaka Stock Exchange General Index (DGEN) gained more than 15 points in the second hour of trading. But later it started to dip towards close of the trade.
DGEN and all shares price index or DSI gained 1.68 points and 4.52 points to close at 2841.89 and 2405.50 respectively. The DS 20, the index of blue-chip companies, however, shed 3.47 points and closed 2291.40.
The market remained static amid limited participation of the investors and some investors are selling their shares to escape further losses, according to the market operators. "The market is little bit nervous as the continuous downturn of the market in the last several days has upset the investors," said a capital market analyst.
Concentration should be given to increase cash flow to the market that saw fund crisis in recent days, he said adding the merchant banks should be allowed to run their activities without intervention by securities regulator to boost fund flow to the market.
The turnover further declined to Tk 1.16 billion against Tk 1.27 billion of Wednesday, the last trading day.
The market capitalisation, however, rose to Tk 785.66 billion against Tk 784.47 billion.
UCBL, AB Bank, Jamuna Oil, Grameen One and Meghna Petroleum were the top turnover leaders.
Of them UCBL topped the list with Tk 68.28 million traded followed by AB Bank (Tk 64.71 million).
Dutch-Bangla Bank rose by 6.59 per cent at Tk 9598.50 per share on the news that the Board of Directors of the bank has recommended stock dividend at the rate of 1: 3.94719 (i.e. three point nine four seven one nine bonus shares against one existing share) for the calendar year 2007. The bank also declared its Record Date for AGM and EGM on March 23 next.
Libra Infusion, Ibne Sina and BD Dyeing rose by 13.35 per cent and 9.12 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
Maq Enterprises, Eastern Lubricant, 4th ICB Mutual Fund and Keya Detergent were the top losers on the day.