Bangladesh’s stocks open week on sharp decline

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s stocks witnessed yet another bearish session Sunday, extending the losing streak for the fifth day in a row, with key index of the major bourse declining below 5,900-mark.

Analysts said the persistent liquidity shortage coupled with ongoing pessimism kept investors mostly inactive, taking the key index below 5,900-mark once again.

Following the previous week’s sharp fall, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) saw positive trend while the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) witnessed downturn at opening amid low trading activities.

Within first 15 minutes of trading, the key index of the country’s prime bourse advanced more than 0.28 point while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city’s bourse fell 12 points at 10:45am.

Since then, it slowed down and eroded almost all the early gains as the session progressed.

After 30 minutes of trading, the DSEX fell more than 28 points while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city’s bourse lost 62 points at 11:00am.

After 90 minutes of trading, DSEX plunged more than 49 points while the CSE All Shares Price Index lost 114 points at 12:00noon.

The downward trend continued till end of the session with no sign of reversal. Finally DSEX ended more than 74 points lower while CASPI lost 243 points at closing.

DHAKA STOCK EXCHANGE:

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), plunged 74.85 points or 1.26 percent to settle at 5,832 points.

Two other indices of the premier bourse also saw sharp decline. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 28 points or 1.30 percent to finish at 2,142 and DSES (Shariah) dropped 14 points or 1.03 perent to close at 1,361.

The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 336 issues traded, 302 closed lower, 23 higher and 11 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

Trading activities, however, increased to BDT 3.84 billion, which was 32 percent higher than the previous day’s 20 months lowest turnover of BDT 2.90 billion.

A total number of 0.098 million trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 84.20 million securities.

The market capilatisation of DSE fell to BDT 4,054 billion against BDT 4,095 billion in the previous session.

Square Pharmaceuticals topped the turnover chart with shares worth BDT 228 million changing hands, followed by Unique Hotel & Resorts, IFAD Autos, Beximco Pharmaceuticals and ACI Limited.

Sonar Bangla Insurance was the day’s highest gainer, posting a gain of 7.27 percent while Dutch-Bangla Bank was the worst loser, losing 10.78 percent after its dividend declaration.

CHITTAGONG STOCK EXCHANGE:

The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed lower with CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – shedding 243 points to settle at 18,008 and Selective Categories Index – CSCX – falling 151 points to finish at 10,867.

Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 173 issues closed lower, 38 ended higher and 13 remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city bourse traded 5.50 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly BDT 152 million in turnover.

BBN/SS/ANS