Stock prices down amid thin turnover

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FE Report
The stock prices on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) Monday witnessed a decline amid a thin turnover.
The market operators said the downtrend in stock prices and thin turnover was caused due to investors' cautious mood ahead of the year-end that compelled many investors to adjust their loans.
The total turnover slightly declined to Tk 1.009 billion in the day's trading, dominated by losers, from the previous day's Tk 1.13 billion.
The total market capitalisation also declined to Tk 722.53 billion from Tk 727.34 billion.
All the market barometers -- DSE General Index (DGEN), All Shares Price Index (DSI) and DSE-20 Index (DS20) -- lost 22.63 points, 19.69 points and 3.49 points to close at 2906.25, 2455.47 and 2306.06 respectively.
However, the benchmark DGEN index gained over 41 points in the first half hour of trading session. Later, it started to plunge due to profit taking by the investors.
Out of 228 traded issues, prices of only 50 advanced, 158 declined and 20 remained unchanged.
"The institutional investors remained inactive as most of them have already fulfilled their buying target for this year," said a market operator explaining the reason behind the lower turnover.
He also said the bourse might continue to witness lower turnover throughout this month because of the coming Eid festival.
The United Commercial Bank (UCB) continued to occupy the first position of the top ten-turnover list with shares worth Tk 101.88 million changing hands. Prices of the UCB opened at Tk 4942.50 and closed at Tk 4818.25 per share.
ACI was the second turnover leader with its shares worth Tk 66.94 million traded followed by IBBL Perpetual Bond with Tk 54.99 million, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) with Tk 50.78 million, Brac Bank with Tk 49.81 million, Summit Power with Tk 39.23 million, BOC with Tk 34.70 million, BATBC with Tk 27.19 million, Uttara Bank with Tk 23.01 million and Berger Paint Bangladesh Limited with Tk 22.69 million.
Eastern Lubricant, Federal Insurance, ICB, Purabi Insurance, Sajib Knitwear and Metro Spinning were the top losers.
On the other hand, B-category issue-Kay and Que- was the top gainer with 7.27 per cent rise on the day.
Glaxo Smithkline, Alamin Chemical, BD Autocars, HR Textile and Bd Thai Aluminium were the other gainers.
Meanwhile, Chittagong Stock Exchange's selective categories index (CSCX) also declined 0.52 per cent to close at 4752.47, while its blue chips index, CSE30, plummeted by 0.41 per cent to close at 6507.81.