Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks tumbled on Sunday as worried investors dumped Grameenphone shares to prevent further losses, market operators said.

The key index of the prime bourse tumbled below the threshold of 4,700-mark again Sunday as worried investors dumped Grameenphone shares to prevent further losses.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 18.23 points or 0.38 per cent to settle at 4,688, after adding 14.73 points in the previous session.

Market experts said investors' confidence got a battering, which triggered sell-off again on GP shares after the news that the Supreme Court ordered GP to pay BDT 20 billion in three months to the telecom regulator from the audit claim of BDT 125.79 billion.

The apex court said if the GP fails to pay the amount within the stipulated time then the High Court injunction against the realisation of BDT 125.79 billion by BTRC would be vacated.

GP, which is the largest company by capital, plunged by 5.31 per cent, contributing 36.50 points of the DSEX's fall alone on Sunday, he estimated.

The financial sector is not performing well as investors are suffering from confidence crisis due soaring non-performing loans, which hit the bank stocks hard, they added.

The market opened on positive note and the key index gained more than 16 points within first 30 minutes of trading. But rest of the session went down steadily.

Two other indices also finished lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 12.46 points to finish at 1,638 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 5.94 points to close at 1,075.

Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, also fell and amounted to BDT 3.77 billion, which was 10.45 per cent lower than the previous day's transaction of BDT 4.21 billion.

However, GP faced massive sell-offs riding on the news that the Supreme Court ordered GP to pay BDT 20 billion in three months to telecom regulator as the government agency claimed due BDT 125.79 billion.

Accordingly, telecommunication sector witnessed the highest loss of 5.03 per cent, followed by banking with 0.75 per cent, non-bank financial institutions 0.52 per cent, pharma 0.45 per cent and power 0.35 per cent.

Engineering and food sectors gained 1.04 per cent and 1.03 per cent respectively.

Losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 338 issues traded, 167 closed lower, 138 ended higher and 33 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

A total number of 124,443 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 134.37 million shares and mutual fund units.

The market-cap of the DSE also fell to BDT 3,544 billion on Sunday, from BDT 3,570 billion in the previous session.

On the other hand, the Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)-losing 19 points to close at 14,252 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -falling 13 points to finish at 8,662.

The gainers beat losers as 111 issues closed higher, 102 ended lower and 35 remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city bourse traded 6.07 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly BDT 137 million in turnover.

BBN/SSR/AD

Brokers said investors were mostly active on Bangladesh’s lone listed telecommunication — GP’s shares throughout the week amid optimism.

They said that when the market went through a correction phase, a section of investor took position on fundamentally sound stocks like GP, taking it to week’s top turnover chart.

According to statistics available with the DSE, about 1.11 million shares of GP were traded, generating a turnover of BDT 516 million, which was 4.02 percent of the premier bourse’s total transaction.

The average daily turnover for the company was BDT 129 million.

Recently, the board of directors of GP has recommended 100 percent final cash dividend (i.e. total 205 percent cash dividend for the year 2017 which represents 101 percent of profit after tax for the year 2017 inclusive of 105 percent interim cash dividend which has already been paid) for the year ended on December 31, 2017.

The company has also reported earnings per share of BDT 20.31, net asset value per share of BDT 26.01 and net operating cash flow per share of BDT 42.79 for the year ended on December 31, 2017 as against BDT 16.68, BDT 24.86 and BDT 34.18 respectively for the same period of the previous year

The second largest market cap company – Square Pharmaceuticals emerged as second highest turnover leader, with shares of BDT 449 million changing hands, followed by BRAC Bank BDT 400 million, Mercantile Bank BDT 338 million, Salvo Chemical BDT 284 million, Beximco BDT 233 million.

Aamra Networks was also included in the week’s top turnover chart with shares of BDT 232 million changing hands, followed by LankaBangla Finance BDT 218 million, Queen South Textile BDT 217 million and IFAD Autos BDT 216 million.

BBN/SSR/SR