Dhaka stocks mostly steady

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Dhaka stocks were mostly steady at close Thursday in a market that saw continued price fluctuation amid higher turnover.

All the top ten gainers of the day came from the worst performing Z-category companies.

Trading at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) opened in an upbeat mood, which became a common trend in the last one month.

The main index rose in first 15 minutes of the trade, but later it failed to hold onto the rising trend because of selling pressure.

The benchmark DSE General Index (DGEN), commencing with a gain of 17 points, slightly fell 3.92 points to close at 2,649.49.

Out of 263 issues traded, 159 advanced, 97 declined and seven remained unchanged.

'The continuous volatility indicates the nervousness stills persists,' a market expert said.

'Most of the big and institutional investors continued to remain on the sidelines watching the price movement. But their absence has depressed the market,' he added.

The investors, particularly small investors, are so much in a subdued mood that even the healthy half-yearly corporate profits earned by most of the companies failed to lead to a fresh buying spree, a stock broker said.

He added that the investors bought the shares of the low-rated companies, making riskier their investment.

The other market barometer--the All Shares Price Index (DSI)-- rose 2.10 points to end at 2196.96 while the DSE-20 blue chip index shed 6.14 points to close at 2175.10.

The day's total turnover increased to Tk 2.98 billion from the previous day's Tk 2.61 billion while the market capitalisation remained steady at Tk 1.01 trillion for three consecutive weeks.

The three companies of Beximco Group continued to hold the top turnover positions for the third consecutive day.

Beximco Pharma was the turnover leader with shares worth Tk 365.57 million traded, followed by Shinepukur Ceramics Limited with Tk 139.26 million and Beximco Limited with Tk 130.66 million.

Aftab Automobiles, Summit Power, Lafarge Surma Cement, Titas Gas, Lanka Bangla Finance Limited, AIMS First Mutual Fund and Grameen Scheme Two Mutual Fund were the other top turnover leaders on the day.

Rangamati Food, Bionic Food, Padma Cement, CTG Vegetable, Tulip Dairy, Saleh Carpet, Padma Print, Gachihata Aquaculture and Ashraf Textile were the top gainers on the day.

The day's top losers were Phrama Aid, Miracle Industries, Kohinoor Chemicals, Fuwang Ceramic, Apex Spinning, BSRM, Eastern Lubricants, Quasem Silk, Sandhani Insurance and Apex Weaving.