Dhaka stocks drop after 2-day gain

Staff Correspondent | Published: 22:48, Feb 05,2023

 
 

Dhaka stocks ended a two-day gaining streak on Sunday, but the turnover on the bourse rose as most of the investors went for selling shares to book some profits, market operators said.

They said that investors remained cautious as they were assessing possible impacts of the latest hike in gas and electricity prices on the country’s economy.


DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, lost 8.20 points, or 0.13 per cent, and settled at 6,286.53 points on Sunday after gaining 27.67 points in the past two trading sessions.

The equity indices of the Dhaka bourse observed mild corrections as the market pulse shifted to the correction mode due to profit booking activities from cautious investors following a rally in the previous sessions, the market operators said.

The market remained positive in early hours of Sunday’s session, but it failed to maintain the momentum and moved downwards to end the session in the negative zone as investors went for profit booking, they said.

However, the overall market situation remained gloomy amid the investors’ concern over the increase in gas and electricity prices, they said.

The government again increased the electricity prices by 5 per cent and the gas prices under four consumer categories by up to 179 per cent, effective from February 1.

Businesses said that the cost of production would increase abnormally due to the gas and power price hike and it would also fuel the inflation rate in the country in coming days.

The total turnover of the Dhaka bourse increased to Tk 752.74 crore on Sunday against Tk 687.12 crore on February 2.

The floor price withdrawal from 169 companies on December 21 created panic among the investors and made the overall market situation more complex, the market operators said.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on July 28, 2022 imposed floor prices on all companies to prevent share prices of the companies from falling beyond a certain level amid economic worries in the country.

Hwa Well Textiles, Libra Infusions, Orion Infusion, Apex Footwear, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Desh Garments, Jamuna Oil Company, Rangpur Foundry, Ambee Pharma and Anlimayarn Dyeing were the top 10 gainers considering their closing prices on the day.

Beacon Pharma, Meghna Life Insurance, Aamra Networks, Genex Infosys, Sea Pearl Beach Resort and Spa, Sonali Life Insurance, Rupali Life Insurance, eGeneration, Sandhani Life Insurance and Pragati Insurance were the top 10 losers considering their closing prices on the day.

EBL Securities in its daily market commentary said, ‘The equity indices of the Dhaka bourse logged marginal corrections in the first session of the week as cautious investors opted for profit-booking and portfolio rebalancing in response to the latest earnings disclosures of the listed companies.’

The market opened higher, but selling pressure started mounting from mid-session, causing the benchmark index to fall into the red zone in the final hour of trading as cautious investors saw it as an opportunity to offload their holdings, it said.

Among the sectors, IT issues exerted the highest turnover, followed by pharmaceutical and miscellaneous stocks.

Most of the sectors displayed mixed returns, out of which travel, IT and services exerted the most corrections, while miscellaneous, cement and tannery exhibited the marginal positive returns on the bourse on Sunday.

Out of the 347 issues traded on the day, 43 advanced, 133 declined and 171 remained unchanged.

The DS30 index also declined by 4.46 points to finish at 2,226.26 points and the DSE Shariah index declined by 2.75 points to close at 1,368.20 points on the day.

Genex Infosys topped the turnover chart with its shares worth Tk 101.18 crore changing hands.

Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Orion Pharma, Olympic Industries, Shinepukur Ceramics, Aamra Networks, Eastern Housing,

Bashundhara Paper Mills, Orion Infusion and Gemini Sea Food were the other turnover leaders on the day.

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