The daily trade turnover on the prime bourse fell below Tk 6.0 billion-mark once again on Tuesday, hitting more than two months low, as most of the investors were reluctant to make fresh investment in stocks.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, stood at Tk 5.75 billion on the country’s premier bourse, slumping by nearly 16 per cent over previous day’s mark of Tk 6.82 billion.
It was the lowest single-day transactions since January 01, 2019, when the turnover totaled a record Tk 5.30 billion.
Market analysts said majority of the investors followed ‘wait-and-see’ strategy ahead of earnings and dividend declaration of financial sectors’ companies.
The market started on positive note and the key index rose about 27 points within first hour of trading. But, the most of the early gains wiped out as cautious investors went on selling shares.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,687, advancing only 5.07 points or 0.08 per cent over the previous day.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also edged up 4.20 points to finish at 1995 points. However, the DSES (Shariah) index lost 5.0 points to settle at 1,304.
A total number of 127,976 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 120.09 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE increased to Tk 4,137 billion, from Tk 4,133 billion in the previous day.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers, as out of 345 issues traded, 191 closed lower, 109 ended higher and 45 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Monno Ceramic Industries topped the day’s turnover list with shares worth Tk 396 million changing hands, closely followed by United Power, Premier Bank, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company and National Polymer.
Dutch-Bangla Bank was the day’s best performer, posting a 9.97 per cent gain after the news that a meeting of board of directors will be held on March 12.
Paramount Insurance was the worst loser, plunging by 13.13 per cent following lower than expected dividend declaration news.
However, the port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 23 points to settle at 17,402 while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX – shedding 11 points to finish at 10,543.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 152 issues ended lower, 62 closed higher and 33 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 6.28 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 195 million in turnover.
