Dhaka stocks ended in the red on Thursday after just one session on the up as investors’ participation on the trading floor declined ahead of the weekend.
The key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, finished at 4,149.16 points, shedding 0.97 per cent or 40.92 points on the day.While the old key index of the bourse, DGEN, finished at 4,425.47 points, losing 0.89 per cent or 39.99 points.
Market operators said that investors’ participation on the trading floor declined on the day ahead of the weekend, forcing the market to end in the negative zone.
The sell pressure from the mutual funds to make some profits ahead of the June closing might be another reason for the day’s fall, they said.
The recent market trend looks very good as the turnover is improving gradually thanks to boosted investors’ confidence while significant improvement in participation of foreign investors is also a good sign for the market, they observed.
The blue chip index of the bourse, DS30, lost 1.27 per cent, or 20.02 points, closing at 1,547.54 points on the day.
The turnover of the bourse declined to Tk 644.15 crore from the earlier trading session’s Tk 786.81 crore.
Of the 284 shares and mutual funds traded on the day, 74 advanced, 195 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
‘The week closed coping the style during the opening three sessions of the week. Bourse started with optimism but could not hold it to the end of every said session. Sale pressure dominated as the session progressed and the same exhibited today [Thursday],’ IDLC Investments said in its daily market commentary.
‘As market could not sustain above 4,500 points level, some impatient sale was enough to take away 40 points from the benchmark index, DGEN. Apparently, investors were taking position on fundamentally sound scrips over the expectations of yearly or half-yearly corporate and/or earning declarations,’ it also said.
Unlike the recent market trend, fuel and power sector occupied the major portion of the day’s turnover, 23.79 per cent, while engineering sector followed the chart.
Unique Hotel and Resorts led the turnover table as its shares worth Tk 51.34 crore changed hands on the day, while Meghna Petroleum, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Padma Oil, Jamuna Oil, Aftab Auto, Summit Purbanchol Power Company, Square Pharma and Grameenphone were the other turnover leaders.
JMI Syringes and Medical Devices gained the most as its shares went up by 9.84 per cent, while Apex Adelchi Footwear lost the most, 7.16 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Board of Directors of the DSE on the day decided to reduce the trading hours of the bourse by one hour during the month of Ramadan.
The trading of DSE will start at 11:00am instead of 10:30am while the session will end at 2:00pm instead of 2:30pm.
The clearing hours of the bourse will be from 10:30am to 3:00pm to settle the transactions of the session.
The DSE board also reduced the office hours of the bourse by two hours. The DSE office will start at 10:00am and finish at 4:00pm.
-With New Age input
