Possible telecom listing sets an upbeat mood

FE Team | Published: November 17, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The stock prices continued its rally in the week ended Thursday amid a strong enthusiasm among the investors.
The enthusiasm was triggered when a tripartite meeting among the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on November 12 decided that two leading mobile phone companies - Grameenphone (GP) and Aktel - will float shares by the end of June, 2008.
GP is the largest public limited company in Bangladesh.
The news encouraged the investors who are already in an upbeat mood, to go for fresh buying, market operators said.
The benchmark DSE General Index or DGEN for the first time crossed 3000 points-mark, another milestone in the week and closed at 3013.00 points, a 72.85 points up against the previous week.
Two other market barometers- DSE 20 and All Share Price Index or DSI- also gained 73.33 points and 55.33 points respectively.
DSE 20 and DSI indices closed at 2325.54 and 2549.34 points respectively.
The total market capitalisation recorded 2.19 per cent rise at Tk 729.06 billion.
Out of 280 listed issues, 105 gained, 128 declined, 13 remained unchanged and 34 were not traded.
Power Grid became the top turnover leader with Tk 1.20 billion traded accounting for 9.85 per cent of the week's total turnover.
The recommendation of 25 per cent cash dividend for the shareholders of Power Grid triggered the issue price to become the top turnover leader. The company had declared 10 per cent cash dividend in 2006.
BRAC Bank was the second turnover leader with Tk 1.06 billion traded accounting for 8.70 per cent of the week's total turnover.
United Commercial Bank, Islami Bank, Trust Bank, Summit Power, Lafarge Surma Cement, Standard Bank, Social Investment Bank and AB Bank were the other turnover leaders.
Eastern Lubricant was the top gainer with a whopping 44.59 per cent rise in the week against the previous week. Another power and fuel issue-Padma Oil- also marked a sharp rise to become the second top turnover leader with 24.49 per cent rise against the previous week.
The prices of Eastern Lubricant and Padma Oil surged on the news that Jamuna Oil and Meghna Oil will be directly listed on the bourses by the end of this month.
"We hope shares worth Tk 2.27 billion of Jamuna Oil, Meghna Oil and Titas Gas will be floated by the end of 2007 and it is creating a strong enthusiasm among the investors," a DSE source told the FE.
On the other hand, Fu Wang Food, Tallu Spinning and Janata Insurance were the top losers with 18.99 per cent, 16.41 per cent and 15.80 per cent decline respectively in their share prices.