Country’s twin bourses – Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) – started the week’s first session on negative note as most of the issues witnessed loss on Monday amid no sign of an end to the ongoing political turmoil in the country over the general election held on January 5. The week’s first session of the bourses took place on Monday as no trading was held Sunday, a general holiday on the occasion of national election. However, both the bourses witnessed gain throughout last week from Sunday to Thursday. The election, held amid boycott by almost all the opposition parties, was marked by heavy violence and very poor voter turnout. In such a situation, many investors are now skeptical about any immediate solution to the political confrontation between the two major political alliances — ruling Awami League-led 14-party Alliance and main opposition BNP-led 18-party alliance. The week’s first session started Monday morning amid 48-hour countrywide hartal and indefinite blockade enforced since last week by the opposition alliance. The country’s whole trade and business have been experiencing a standstill condition for a couple of months as this left more than a hundred people killed and several thousand others injured. On Monday, the trading session at both the bourses started with positive note, but ended the day in negative. The volume of trade in terms of value and number was lower on Monday at both the bourses than on Thursday last week. The DSE benchmark index, DSEX lost 17.75 points or 0.41 percent to reach 4296.34 at the close of trading on Monday. Of the 288 issues traded, 92 gained, 157 declined and 39 remained unchanged. Most of the traded issues of the day included those from food and beverage, mutual funds, steel, chemical and petroleum, ceramics, banking, and ceramics sector. Shares worth Tk 315.62 crore changed hands at the DSE on the day against Tk 370.83 crore on Thursday. The day’s top 10 losers at the DSE were Rahima Food, Gemini Sea Food, Standard Ceramics, Bank Asia, 4th ICB, Argon Denims, IPDC, 3rd ICB, Modern Dying, and Hakkani Publishers. Lanka Bangla, Golden Son, Unique Hotel and Resorts, and Active Fine Chemicals, Apollo Ispat and Gemini Textile were the top most traded issues in terms of both value and volume at the DSE. The CSE key index, CSCX lost 47.80 points to reach 8430.55 at the close today. Of the 209 issues traded, 42 advanced, 150 suffered loss and 17 remained unchanged. The value of the traded issues was Tk 32.50 crore on the day against Tk 42.67 crore on Thursday. Earlier, in the morning the DSEX gained 0.85 points or 0.01 percent to reach 4314.94 at 11:15 am while the CSCX gained 11.60 points to stand at 8489.97, also at 11:15 am today. – UNB
