Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Stocks at the country’s both bourses -- Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) – recorded a fall with lower turnover amid countrywide general strike
Dhaka stocks ended flat on the day with high volatility amid dawn-to-dusk countrywide shutdown enforced by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its alliance, market operators said.
Despite countrywide strike, the brokerage houses fulfilled their quorum in time and the DSE trading server was logged-in by over 200 brokerage houses within the scheduled time, DSE officials said.
As per the rules, at least 72 members’ houses have to log into DSE trading server to fulfill the quorum.
However, presence of investors at different brokerage houses was thin due to the strike and many of them executed trade through mobile phone.
The market opened with a positive note, gaining more than 45 points within first five minutes. After that it swung between positive and negative territories several times throughout the whole session and finally ended flat.
The benchmark General Index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange--- (DGEN) lost 0.33 points or 0.006 percent to close at 5,367.19.
Out of 262 issues traded, 124 advanced, 120 declined and 18 remained unchanged.
The turnover value came down to BDT 6.53 billion which was 16.17 percent compared to BDT 7.79 billion in the previous session.
Beximco Pharma topped the turnover chart with shares worth BDT 401.12 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Meghna Petroleum, Beximco Limited, Jamuna Oil, GP, LankaBangla Finance, DESCO, MI Cement, Titas Gas and GPH Ispat.
Islamic Finance was the highest gainer posting a rise of 9.97 per cent following its first quarter (Q1) earnings declaration while Phoenix Finance.
Similarly, the CSE benchmark index, CSCX, shed 17.12 points to close at 10011.57 points on the day.
The index lost 196.68 points to close at 10028 on Thursday. The tracking index lost 3.24 points on Wednesday although it showed a gain of 147.45 points on Tuesday.
The CSE key index shed 121.88 points on Monday while it gained 193.87 points on Sunday.
Of the issues traded at the CSE, 75 advanced, 107 suffered losses and nine remained unchanged.
The Chittagong bourse turnover also declined with BDT 527.20 million as against BDT 733.80 million recorded on Thursday.
It was BDT 899.10 million on Wednesday while BDT 836.80 million and BDT 977.10 million on Tuesday and Monday respectively.
BBN/SSR/AD-22Apr12-8:50 pm (BST)
