Staff Correspondent
Dhaka stocks witnessed a downtrend last week for the straight third week amid volatile trading with the investors’ participation shrinking, market operators said.
The general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange lost 24.52 points, or 0.91 per cent, in the week to close at 2,671.06 on Thursday, while its blue chips index, DSE20, shed 10.13 points, or 0.46 per cent, to finish at 2,189.21.
Stock prices at the DSE dropped in the first two days of the week and remained almost flat in the last two days. But the market jumped on Tuesday after the Securities and Exchange Commission held a market-review meeting with merchant banks and stock exchanges.
The stock market regulatory body convened the meeting following a demonstration of a group of retail investors in front of the DSE building on Monday amid a continuous fall in share prices in recent weeks.
Market analysts said the market remained volatile as investors, especially retailers, remained shaky amid the recent bearish trend on the market. The market also saw limited participation of institutional investors, who kept a ‘wait-and-see’ policy, they said.
Out of 297 issues, 144 advanced, 121 declined, three remained unchanged, and 29 were not traded in the week.
The low profile ‘Z’ category issues saw unusual rise in their share prices in last week. Of the top ten gainers, nine were ‘Z’ category companies.
An asset management company official said share prices of the low-profile companies rose unusually as investors chased the stocks on various speculations and rumours.
The DSE daily average turnover dropped to Tk 287 crore from the previous week’s Tk 344 crore.
Beximco Pharmaceuti-cals topped the turnover leaders with a total transaction of Tk 129 crore, which accounts for 8.94 per cent of the week’s total turnover of Tk 1,437 crore at the bourse.
Beximco, Shinepukur Ceramics, Titas Gas, Summit Power, BSRM Steels, Grameen Two Mutual Fund, Uttara Bank, ACI Formulations, and Summit Alliance Port were the rest of the top 10 turnover leaders on the week.
Meghna Pet was the week’s biggest gainer with a 49.02-per cent rise in its share price.
The week’s other top ten gainers were Shyampur Sugar Mills, Rangamati Food, Quasem Silk, Quasem Textile, Lexco, Bangladesh Monospool Paper, BD Welding Electrodes, Al-Amin Chemicals and Meghna Condensed Milk.
Padma Oil Company topped the losers’ list with a 46.72-per cent fall in its share price. On Monday, the share price of Padma Oil was adjusted after its corporate benefits.
BEMCO, Al-Haj Textile, Eagle Star Textile, National Housing and Finance and Investment, Eighth ICB Mutual Fund, Third ICB Mutual Fund, Pragati Life Insurance, Global Life Insurance and Bextex were the rest of the top ten losers.
Of the total turnover of the week, ‘A’ category issues accounted for 65.02 per cent, while ‘B’ category issues shared 3.73 per cent, ‘N’ category 26.95 per cent and ‘Z’ category 4.30 per cent.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
