Stocks fall despite surge of GP price

Stocks slumped on Sunday despite Grameenphone (GP) added 48 points riding on the news to deposit Tk 10 billion to the telecom regulator.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 4,698, shedding 34.24 points or 0.72 per cent over the previous day.
Market analysts said investors went on sell-offs on selective stocks amid lower-than-expected dividend declaration by a number of companies during the trading hours, taking the market in the red zone once again.
However, the GP added 48.71 points alone to the core index as its share jumped 8.12 per cent to close at Tk 319.60 on Sunday after the news that the company deposited Tk 10 billion to the telecom regulator.
"GP, the largest company by market-cap, saved the index from a big fall," said a leading broker.
He noted that the investors showed their appetite on GP shares as the legal battle between GP and the telecom regulator set to end after the Supreme Court ordered the GP to pay Tk 10 billion by today (Monday).
The GP informed that they deposited Tk 10 billion on Sunday to BTRC, following the order of the Appellate Division.
Two other indices also ended in the red. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 1.04 points to close at 1,591 and the DSES (Shariah) index lost 3.81 points to settle at 1,085.
Turnover, an important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 6.68 billion on the country's premier bourse, falling further by 13 per cent over previous day's mark of Tk 7.70 billion.
According to EBL Securities, most of the investors remained skeptical and adopted "wait-and-see" approach to observe the ongoing market correction.
The profit booking of the shaky investors in most of the sectors, particularly in engineering, banking, pharma and power sectors pushed down the prime index, commented International Leasing Securities.
Engineering sector witnessed the highest loss of 2.69 per cent, followed by power with 0.95 per cent, food 0.86 per cent, banking 0.76 per cent and pharma 0.41 per cent.
Telecom sector posted the highest gain of 7.69 per cent riding on GP, followed by non-bank financial institutions with 0.08 per cent rise.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 356 issues traded, 263 closed lower, 70 ended higher and 23 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 158,563 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 207.02 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE, however, rose to Tk 3,599 billion, from Tk 3,592 billion in the previous session.
GP topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 470 million changing hands, followed by Orion Pharma, SK Trims & Industries, Summit Power and Orion Infusion.
Orion Infusion was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Prime Insurance was the worst loser, losing 22 per cent following its no divided declaration.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange also edged lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)-losing 144 points to close at 14,380 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 85 points to finish at 8,726.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 195 issues closed lower, 43 ended higher and 16 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 10.79 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 233 million in turnover.

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