Dhaka stocks finish almost flat as GP depreciates

Dhaka stocks finished nearly flat yesterday, led by price depreciation in Grameenphone shares on the second day of its trade.

Although 75 percent of issues or 175 securities traded up, the benchmark index of the premier bourse closed up only 1.7 points, or 0.04 percent.

“The market showed resilience against a fall in share prices of Grameenphone,” BRAC-EPL, an investment firm, said in an analysis.

Grameenphone, the leading mobile phone operator, made its trading debut on Monday as the largest issue in the history of Bangladesh capital market.

At the end of yesterday's trading session, Grameenphone shares depreciated 3.5 percent. As a sector, it lost more than 88 points.

Starting at Tk 176.10, each Grameenphone share rose as high as Tk 186 before closing at Tk 171.10.

The number of trades went down significantly (less than half) compared to the previous day. The value of trade however was still the highest for the day. A total of 28,32,800 Grameenphone shares worth Tk 49.88 crore traded on the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

Grameenphone joined the stock market with 135 crore ordinary shares of Tk 10 each. However, the offer price was Tk 70 per share, of which Tk 60 was premium. It raised Tk 486 crore through an initial public offering (IPO) and another Tk 486 crore through pre-IPO or private placement.

The market started high by gaining about 65 points within the first 20 minutes of trade. But the market lost momentum on profit-taking and a price fall in Grameenphone. It continued the losing trend for the rest of the session.

The total turnover however increased heavily yesterday, as investors are moving away from the 'wait-and-watch' approach. It increased by 24 percent to Tk 913.81 crore.

A total of 3,13,27,780 shares and mutual fund units traded on the DSE.

The banking sector continued the gaining momentum, as the sector advanced by 1.66 percent. All non-bank financial institutions also rose, with a number of companies gaining more than 5 percent.