BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks slipped into the red on Monday amid volatile trading as the country’s major mobile phone operator, Grameenphone (GP), shares fell sharply after the record date.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,160, shedding 12.49 points or 0.24 per cent over the previous day.
Market analysts said GP's share price plunged 4.66 per cent or BDT 15.7 each to close at BDT 321.4 on Monday, which contributed the overall market fall.
The GP alone contributed 33 points fall in index.
Market players said pre-Eid sale pressure eased to some extent as only three trading days are left before Eid vacation.
Trading and official activities on the bourses will remain closed for nine days from August 9 to August 17, including weekly holidays, on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 10.10 points to finish at 1,826 and the DSES (Shariah) index lost 4.25 points to settle at 1,189.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at BDT 4.77 billion, which was 3.02 per cent higher than the previous day's turnover of BDT 4.63 billion.
The investors mainly reshuffled their portfolio from December closing stocks to June closing stocks anticipating better return in the year-end dividend declaration, they added.
A total number of 134,714 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 126.19 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also fell to BDT 3,846 billion on Monday, from BDT 3,866 billion in the previous day.
Among the major sectors, the telecom posted the highest loss of 4.47 per cent, followed by non-bank financial institutions with 0.22 per cent, food 0.18 per cent, banking 0.17 per cent and power 0.14 per cent.
On the other hand, engineering and pharmaceutical issues witnessed 0.73 per cent and 0.23 per cent respectively.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 353 issues traded, 183 closed lower, 130 higher and 40 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Coppertech Industries, which made debut on the day, topped the turnover chart with 7.62 million shares worth BDT 311 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Square Pharma, Monno Ceramic, United Power and Bangladesh Shipping Corporation.
Al-Haj Textile was the day's best performer aging, posting a gain of 9.91 per cent while SEML Shariah Mutual Fund was the day's worst loser, slumping by 6.67 per cent.
On the other hand, the Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended slightly lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 5.24 points to settle at 15,788 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 3.68 points to finish at 9,596.
The port city bourse traded 8.06 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than BDT 266 million in turnover.
BBN/SSR/AD