Ramadan trade begins with indices falling

Dhaka stocks inched down in thin trade on the first trading session in Ramadan on Monday, following a public holiday on Sunday marking Independence Day.

Excluding the companies stuck at the floor price, the share price of only 28 companies increased, and the share price of 72 companies decreased.

Stocks remained volatile last week as investors were active on both sides of the trading fence, but the sellers ultimately gained the upper hand.

The volatility of last week was visible at the beginning of this week as well, making investors sceptical about the overall transactions of Ramadan, according to market operators.

Equity indices of the Dhaka bourse started to tumble from the early hour of trading session yesterday during the limited trading window in the month of Ramadan.

DSEX, the key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, declined by 11.38 points or 0.2% to settle at 6,204 points at the end of the session.

The blue-chip index DS30 declined 0.12 per cent, the Shariah-based index DSES declined 0.26 per cent, and the large-cap index CDSET also declined 0.15 per cent closed at 2,215.41, 1,349.69, and 1,213.46 points, respectively.

Overall, the participants displayed a portfolio rebalancing strategy while many investors rushed to participate in the selective junk shares that exerted short-term gaining opportunity, according to EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.

Meanwhile, the Dhaka bourse observed an increase in participation as total turnover rose by 10.7 per cent to Tk 317 crore as against TK 286 crore in the previous session.

On the sectoral front, travel shares exerted the highest turnover of 18.8 per cent, followed by IT at 12.2 per cent and Food at 10.1 per cent. Out of the 392 issues traded, 28 advanced, 72 declined and 183 remained unchanged.

Monday, all the large-cap sectors posted negative performance. Bank experienced the highest loss of 0.22 per cent followed by pharmaceuticals witnessing a -0.21 per cent turnover. Among others, food & allied, fuel & power, NBFI, and engineering exerted -0.09 per cent, -0.05 per cent, -0.02 per cent and -0.02 per cent turnover, respectively.

Block trades contributed 5.9 per cent of the overall market turnover. Unique Hotel & Resorts Limited was the most traded share with a +8.6 per cent turnover of Tk 41 crore.

Share trading on DSE takes place from 10:00am to 2.00pm without any break during Ramadan instead of the regular trading period of 10:30am to 2:30pm.