Stock market on a roller coaster

FE Report | Published: August 04, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

With investors thinning out in a bearish market, the stock prices shed 71 points more on Sunday, pulling down the benchmark DGEN below 2700-mark.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) General Index (DGEN) was 2689.93 at the end of the day's trading, almost near to the lowest level in past 10 months. The DGEN was 2671.16 on October 04 last year.

Two other market barometers -- All Shares Price Index (DSI) and DSE- 20 (blue chips) - were down by 58.80 points and 64.76 points to end at 2310.22 and 2461.47 respectively.

The regulator -Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and officials of the bourses attribute the erosion in stock prices to the investors' fund mobilization to buy the Titas Gas shares.

However, Executive Director of the SEC Farhad Ahmed after an emergency meeting with the high officials of the bourses and merchant banks Sunday admitted that they were a bit concerned over the continuous decline in stock prices. He informed newsmen that the merchant banks had assured the SEC of playing their due role in bringing the market back on track.

The investors, according to market operators, are disposing of the stocks in their possession to avoid further loss and use the funds thus mobilized for Titas and Grameenphone stocks. Titas shares are available in abundance on the bourses and the Grameenphone authorities have just submitted their proposal relating to the initial public offering (IPO) before the SEC.

Most share prices declined on the day. Out of 223 issues traded , 194 declined, 24 advanced and five remained unchanged.

The total market turnover also came down to Tk 2.19 billion from previous trading day's Tk 2.69 billion. The total market capitalisation also decreased to Tk 937.08 billion against Tk 955.79 billion.

Share prices of the state-run gas distribution company Titas continued to drop registering a fall of 1.65 per cent to end at Tk 296.75 per share.

Until the 22nd trading days of the stock, 655850 shares were sold on both the stock exchanges - DSE and CSE, according to the ICB, the sales agent. The company will have to offload around 7.8 million shares in the remaining eight days as per regulations.

Square Pharma was the top turnover leader on the day with shares worth Tk 123.55 million changing hands, followed by UCBL with Tk 120.20 million.

Beximco Pharma, Keya Cosmetics, Beximco, ACI Limited, Lanka Bangla Finance, BATBC and Apex Adelchi were the other top turnover leaders on the day.

The share prices of Wonder Toys, a Z-category issue, had the biggest gainer with 19.59 per cent rise, followed by BD Thai Aluminum, also a Z-category issue, with 7.43 per cent.

M Hossain Garments, BCIL, Meghna Condensed Milk, Purabi General Insurance were the other top losers on the day.

Aramit Cement, Apex Spinning, Rupali Insurance, 3 rd ICB Mutual Fund, Grameen One Mutual Fund, ICB Second NRB Mutual Fund and PLFSL were the top losers on the day.