Stocks end lower, Jamuna and Meghna in spotlight

Dhaka, Jan 17 (bdprem.com)—Jamuna Oil and Meghna Petroleum grabbed investors' attention Thursday with the state-run enterprises topping the day's turnover board. Overall, however, Dhaka stocks closed downbeat following gains the previous day. Your Ad Here The Dhaka Stock Exchange saw 3,407,900 Jamuna Oil shares traded, while the Chittagong Stock Exchange traded 116,400 Jamuna shares. The DSE traded 1,966,800 Meghna Petroleum shares; while the port city bourse saw 55,200 shares of the state-run enterprise change hands. "It seems the least attractive state run oil shares are now at the top of investors' portfolios," said DSE chief executive Salahuddin Ahmed. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a circuit breaker on the trading of Z category companies, effective from Thursday. Circuit breakers are a price slab, fixed on the basis of the previous day's share closing price, and restrict the upper and lower limit of those share's prices. SEC executive director Farhad Ahmed told bdprem.com that the decision was made to limit Z category companies' share prices. "Share prices of Z category companies increased following the SEC's move to mend the companies," added Farhad. Dhaka stocks opened tentatively in the general index before a sharp fall on the second hour. The midday session witnessed some recovery prior to closing downbeat at the end of trading. The benchmark DGEN or general declined 11.57 points, or 0.39 percent, to end at 2951.90. The DSI or all share price index closed at 2490.22, down 14.16 points, or 0.56 percent. The blue-chip DSE-20 slumped 18.40 points, or 0.75 percent, to end on 2428.35. Turnover, however, on the country's prime bourse surged to Tk 3.11 billion from Tk 1.47 billion the previous day, from 15,002,805 traded shares. Losers outnumbered gainers 193 to 39, with six issues holding steady. State run oil, mutual funds, power and pharmaceuticals dominated the day's trading, with Bank's maintaining a place on the turnover board. Jamuna Oil topped the turnover board, closing 5.15 percent higher, at Tk 379.50. Meghan Petroleum followed, to end at Tk 342.60, up 14.20 percent. Grameen Mutual Fund One continued its gain, rising 5.76 percent, to end on Tk 91.80. AB Bank slumped 0.17 percent to finish at Tk 2798.25. IFIC Bank gained 1.47 percent to close at Tk 2855.25. Among other issues on the turnover board—NBL, BARC Bank, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, Square Pharma and Islami Bank—declined. All the indices on the Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended lower. The CSCX or selective categories index declined 27.39 points, or 0.58 percent, to 4875.98. The CASPI or all share price index ended at 7580.65, down 57.71 points, or 0.75 percent. The blue-chip CSE-30 index closed 42 points, or 0.60 percent lower, at 6866.37. Turnover on the port city bourse surged to Tk 289.686 million from Wednesday's Tk 189.376 million from trading of 2,129,720 shares. Decliners beat advancers 101 to 21, with four scrips remaining unchanged.