Orion Pharma gets most active share on vaccine rumour

Orion Pharmaceuticals has never seen its share price so good since its debut in the market in March 2013.

The local drug maker has been witnessing a phenomenal growth in its stock price — over 68 percent — in last six months.

Also on Sunday, the first day of the week, Orion Pharma’s share price rose by Tk 6.80 apiece or 8.76 percent to Tk 84.40, highest in years. Over Tk 142 crore worth of shares of the company were traded on the day, much higher than any other company, including giant drug makers — Square and Beximco.

Market insiders said all these are happening due to a ‘rumour’ that Orion is going to co-produce Covid-19 vaccines with a foreign company like what is being done by non-listed Incepta Pharmaceuticals.

“One pharmaceutical company has already been involved in the production of coronavirus vaccine. Some other companies are also trying to get involved in vaccine production, which is fuelling the share prices of this sector,” a stock broker told the Business Insider Bangladesh on Sunday.

Though shares of two heavyweights — Square Pharma and Beximco Pharma — went down in the market on Sunday, overall trend in the sector was positive as 16 out of 30 companies listed on the bourse saw a price rise.

It seemed that investors have betted on pharma stocks as Tk 368 crore worth of shares were traded in this sector, up by nearly Tk 70 crore a day ago.

Though all the indices of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) declined on this day, the total transaction amount increased as compared to the previous working day.

The benchmark index, DSEX, declined 13.45 points or 0.18 percent to close the day at 7,237.14.

Among other DSE indices, the shariah-based DSES decreased 6.46 points or 0.40 percent and the blue-chip DSE30 decreased 7.94 points or 0.29 percent to settle at 1574.58 points and 2665.61 points respectively.

However, DSE’s total turnover increased to Tk 2257.29 crore on Sunday, which is 404.87 crore more than the previous session.

Shares and units of 376 companies were traded on the DSE on Sunday. Of these, prices of 113 or 30.05 percent rose, that of 230 or 61.17 percent decreased and values of 33 or 8.78 percent remained unchanged.

The most traded stock on the DSE, after Orion Pharma, were Beximco Limited, Lafarge Holcim, Shinepukur Ceramic, Delta Life Insurance, Beximco Pharma, Genex Infosys, Makson Spinning, Active Fine and SS Steel Limited.

Meanwhile, the overall index CASPI of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) fell 19.35 points to 21126.70 points and securities worth Tk 95.23 crore were traded.