Dhaka stocks see lowest turnover in 45 sessions

Though the last-hour surge prevented the key index from falling on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), the turnover again fell below Tk 1,000 crore on Thursday.

Shares and units worth Tk 975.62 crore were traded on DSE on the day, which was the lowest in the last 45 working days.

Tk 994.11 crore was traded on October 12. Earlier on August 14, less than that, or Tk 644.45 crore was traded.

Meanwhile, the key index of DSE managed to turn positive after five straight days of decline, though the gains were very marginal - only 2 points.

The indexes were negative for most of the time since the beginning of trading. However, the situation started changing in the last hour when some 37 points were added after the share prices of two large-cap companies - Orion Pharma and Beximco Limited - started to rise.

At the end of the day, DSEX, the key index of DSE, rose by 2 points or 0.03 percent to settle at 6,392.

Among other indices, the shariah-based DSES ended the day 1 point lower and the blue-chip DS30 6 points higher.

On the other hand, many of the small-cap companies that had been driving up their share prices were among the top losers on the day.

Even Gemini Sea Food, which announced its highest earnings and dividend in five years, fell the most.

The company’s price fell more than 14 percent on the day as there was no limit to the price fall due to the dividend announcement.

Shares and units of 363 companies were traded on DSE on Thursday. Of these, 62 percent of the company’s share prices remain unchanged. And 17 percent company’s shares and units fell against a rise of only 21 percent.

The shares of the miscellaneous sector were the most traded stocks of the day. The total turnover in this sector was Tk 180.25 crore, which is 19.59 percent of the total turnover.

The pharmaceuticals and chemicals sector was in the second position with Tk 171.1 crore turnover, followed by the engineering sector at Tk 155.2 crore.

Shares of Beximco Limited were the most-traded by value on the DSE as its shares worth Tk 117 crore were traded on the day.

Orion Pharma, which was the second most-traded stock, had a turnover of Tk 77 crore followed by Anwar Galvanizing, Eastern Housing, Gemini Sea Food, KDS Accessories, JHRML, ADN Telecom, Sonali Paper and BSC.

Meanwhile, the overall index CASPI of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) decreased by 20 points to 18,800 and securities worth Tk 26.29 crore were traded on the day.