CSE sees lowest turnover in 10yrs

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) saw its lowest turnover in 10 years yesterday because of poor performance of traders.

The port city bourse traded 46.93 lakh shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 10.39 crore in turnover. The previous lowest turnover of Tk 10.31 crore was witnessed on January 7 of 2008.

Performance of most of the TREC (Trading Right Entitlement Certificate) holders of Chittagong Stock Exchange is very poor, said M Shaifur Rahman Mazumdar, managing director of the CSE.

When the market was falling, the participation of CSE's TREC holders was thin compared to those of Dhaka Stock Exchange's, he said.

Mazumdar also said the overall market was continuously falling because of low transactions in the CSE.

Moreover, the dual TREC holders—who were enlisted both in DSE and CSE—were very active in the Dhaka bourse, but inactive in the port city bourse when the market was bearish, he said.

The DSE saw another fall yesterday for the third consecutive day thanks to low participation of investors.

The benchmark index—DSEX—was mostly volatile. The market started the session on a positive note but soon fell.

DSEX fell 2.93 points or 0.053 percent to close at 5,488.86 yesterday.

“The capital bourse of the country closed marginally lower amid low participation from the investors,” EBL Securities said in its daily market analysis.

It also said the market opened in an upward trend but the selling pressure from the shaky investors brought the index down.

“The regulator was very careful not to let it go on a free fall again,” said a senior official of a merchant bank requesting anonymity.

He also said one institution at the very beginning of the day was in the mood to make purchases, for which the index started to go up.

It did not sustain even though merchant bankers and stock brokers motivated investors not to sell their shares, he said.

Turnover, one of the important indicators of the capital market, fell by 11 percent to Tk 277.35 crore with 8.46 crore shares and mutual fund units changing hands on the DSE.

Losers beat gainers as 160 declined, 117 advanced and 60 finished unchanged on the premier bourse.

Renata dominated the turnover chart with 1.37 lakh shares worth Tk 17.16 crore changing hands, followed by Square Pharmaceuticals, Brac Bank, Grameenphone and Salvo Chemical.

FAS Finance was the day's best performer with a 9.48 percent gain followed by Central Insurance, Envoy Textile and Stylecraft.

BD Finance was the worst loser, shedding 7.42 percent, followed by Savar Refractories, Sonargaon Textiles and Jute Spinners.

Among the major sectors, pharmaceuticals declined the highest—0.83 percent—in market capitalisation followed by engineering 0.68 percent, general insurance 0.32 percent and fuel and power 0.27 percent.

Conversely, the banking sector saw the highest increase of 0.82 percent followed by textiles 0.45 percent.

The port city bourse also fell yesterday. The benchmark index CSCX shed 2.06 points to finish the day at 10,236.21.

Losers beat gainers as 104 declined, 82 advanced and 34 finished unchanged on the CSE.