Share price index at the country’s twin bourses – Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) – returned to positive on Tuesday as most of the issues registered gain despite no sign yet to end the ongoing political standoff over the national election. Only the ruling Awami League and some of its allies participated in the January 5 parliamentary polls while most of the opposition, led by BNP, boycotted it. As a backlash of the unilateral election, still an indefinite blockade and a 48-hour countrywide hartal, enforced by the opposition, are underway. The country’s whole trade and business have been experiencing a standstill for a couple of months as the standoff over the polls left more than a hundred people killed and several thousand others injured. Both the bourses witnessed gain throughout last week from Sunday to Thursday. But it experienced negative trend on Monday, the week’s first session. On the week’s second session on Tuesday, trading at both the bourses – DSE and CSE – started with positive note and ended the day in positive. The volume of trade in terms of value and number was higher on Tuesday at both the bourses than on Monday. The DSE benchmark index, DSEX gained 34.28 points or 0.79 percent to reach 4330.63 at the close of trading on Tuesday. Of the 286 issues traded, 212 gained, 46 declined and 28 remained unchanged. Most of the traded issues of the day included those from footwear, power, insurance and textile sector. Shares worth Tk 456.12 crore changed hands at the DSE on the day against Tk 315.62 crore on Thursday. The day’s top 10 gainers at the DSE were National Tubes, Apex Adelchi Footwear, HR Textile, Delta Spinning, Summit Power, Progressive Life, KPCL, SPPCL, Argon Denim, and Apex Ternary. SPPCL, Golden Son, Lanka Bangla, Summit Power, Generation Next, and Apex Adelchi Footwear were the top most traded issues at the DSE in terms of both value and volume. The CSE key index, CSCX gained 58.40 points to reach 8495.09 at the close today. Of the 211 issues traded, 135 advanced, 52 suffered loss and 24 remained unchanged. The value of the traded issues was Tk 45.22 crore on the day against Tk 32.50 crore on Monday. Earlier, in the morning, the DSEX gained 25.76 points or 0.59 percent to reach 4322.10 at 11:20 am while the CSCX gained 44.53 points to stand at 8481.53, also at 11:20 am today. – UNB
