Bear rules amid thin turnover

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FE Report
The stock market remained bearish amid a thin turnover in the week ended Thursday.
The daily average turnover declined 20.12 per cent to Tk 1.66 billion in the week against Tk 2.08 billion of the previous week.
Market operators said indication of tough steps by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the event of any 'irrational surge' of share prices made the traders cautious.
"The SEC threat affected the market though the stock prices of most of the companies slightly gained while the prices of blue-chip companies declined," a DSE source said.
The share prices of blue-chip companies shed 23.96 points with the DSE 20 closing at 2332.48 at the end of the week.
Two other price barometers-DSE General Index or DGEN and All Share Price Index or DSI- gained 12.91 points and 7.13 points to close at 2971.11 and 2511.32 respectively.
The total market capitalization also gained 0.65 per cent to Tk 736.17 billion from Tk 731.43 billion including the new issue of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd (IBBL) Mudaraba Perpetual Bond.
The market capitalization now hovers over $ 10 billion.
Out of 281 listed issues, only 69 gained, 159 declined, 13 remained unchanged and 40 were not traded.
United Commercial Bank (UCB) became the top turnover leader with Tk 1.09 billion traded accounting for 12.14 per cent of the week's total turnover.
Investors bought the Z-category issue anticipating a good amount of dividends to be approved in the annual general meetings (AGMs) scheduled to be held by the end of next month (December).
"But the issue price declined on a rumour that the company will not approve the dividends at a time in the AGMs," a DSE source said.
BRAC Bank, Power Grid, IBBL Bond, Lafarge Surma Cement, Uttara Bank, Trust Bank, Islami Bank, AB Bank and Social Investment Bank were the other turnover leaders.
Three Z-category issues-Aziz Pipes, Renwick and Meghna Condensed Milk- were the top three gainers in the week with 49 per cent, 34.35 per cent and 22.45 per cent rises against the previous week.
"It is surprising that Z-category issues are gaining sharply in recent days without any fundamental reasons, however, Aziz Pipes disclosed expansion of its plants which hit the market price of the issue," a DSE source said.
The source pointed out that non-existence of circuit breakers on the Z-category issues are also causing the abrupt rise or fall of the issues.
Rahim Textile, Rose Heaven, BOC Bangladesh, Meghna Pet, Lafarge, Dutch-Bangla Bank and Renata were the other gainers.
On the other hand, Bdcom Online, Eastern Housing and Aftab Automobiles were the top losers declining 26.02 per cent, 20.00 per cent and 17.00 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, the trading of IBBL Bond began Sunday last with the face value of Tk 1000. The closing price of each bond was Tk 1636.00 Thursday on the DSE.
The subscription of the bond took place between September 12 and 18.
The company floated bonds worth Tk 1.50 billion in the primary market.