Square Pharma pulls stocks down

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FE Report
The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) indices, particularly that of blue chips, declined Sunday as share prices of a major player of the bourse, Square Pharma, dropped heavily as it went ex-dividend.
Losses in two heavyweights, Lafarge Surma Cement and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, also compounded the fall.
Some blue chips, however, in the pharmaceuticals, power and cement sectors increased, which saved the market from experiencing a heavy fall.
Square Pharma, the biggest scrip by market capitalisation, plunged 24.89 per cent to Tk 3449.25, due to a lift on price limit restrictions in its shares trading on the ex-dividend day.
Banking stocks, which constitute over 50 percent of total market capitalisation, went up on the day.
On the day, the index of the blue-chip shares or DSE-20 Index (DS20) dipped by 115.202 points to close at 1908.454 due to the record date of Square Pharma, an issue which belongs to this special category.
On the other hand, the DSE General Index (DGEN) and the All Shares Price Index (DSI) declined 17.906 points and 0.520 points to close at 2343.435 and 1950.179 respectively.
But, both the total turnover and the market capitalisation of the DSE increased Sunday, the first trading session of the week.
On the day, the total turnover rose to Tk 1.687 billion (168.7 crore) from Tk 1.42 billion of Thursday, the last trading session of the previous week. The total market capitalisation was Tk 547.040 billion on the day.
Out of 205 traded issues, prices of 83 gained, 105 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
Summit Power was the turnover leader with the volume of shares worth Tk 178.849 million traded, followed by Square Pharma with Tk 142.858 million, Desco Tk 112.113 million, UCBL Tk 103.468 million, Uttara Bank Tk 91.045 million, AB Bank Tk 87.093 million, BRAC Bank Tk 73.484 million, AIMS Tk 62.731 million, NBL Tk 54.549 million and IFIC Bank Tk 41.295 million.
Prices of Summit Power gained 5.42 per cent to Tk 1573.00, Desco 0.52 per cent to Tk 966.00, Uttara Bank 10.00 per cent to Tk 3022.25, AB Bank 11.36 per cent to Tk 1957.00, BRAC Bank 0.32 per cent to Tk 924.00, AIMS 3.81 per cent to Tk 5.98, NBL 3.34 per cent to Tk 995.50 and IFIC Bank 20.09 per cent to Tk 3429.25.
However, in response to a DSE query, Uttara Bank has informed that there was no undisclosed price sensitive information of the bank behind the recent unusual price hike
As per decision of the SEC, trading of the units of the 3rd ICB Mutual Fund (MF), 4th ICB MF, 5th ICB MF, 6th ICB MF, 7th ICB MF and 8th ICB MF funds will be held through the CDBL with effect from September 05, 2007. In this respect, trading of the units of the Funds will be allowed only in the spot market on August 28, 2007 and trading of the units will remain suspended on August 29, 2007 and September 02 to 03, 2007 due to finalisation of the demat process.