The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Sharply falling indices on the country's bourses marked the opening day of the week as transactions resumed after three successive holidays yesterday. The closing day of the last week was marked by rising indices.

The All Share Price Index (DSI) of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) shed 1.79 percent to close at 2254.68 points yesterday while the DSE General Index (DGEN) decreased by 2.09 percent to close at 2618.95 points.

The DSE-20 blue-chip index also slipped heavily by 133.56 points or 5.39 per cent to 2345.97.

Both volume and turnover at the bourses declined from the previous trading day as small investors are yet to participate largely in the trading, market analysts say.

"Some institutional and large scale investors went for buying, but the general investors are yet to wakeup from their holiday slumbers," a trader at the DSE told this correspondent.

Amidst a low trading at DSE, the total turnover dipped to Tk 1.86 billion from Thursday's Tk 2.34 billion. Of the traded 216 issues, 159 declined, 50 gained and seven remained unchanged as 12,538,939 shares changed hands.

A total of 129 issues were traded at Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) yesterday. Of them, 32 gained, 93 declined and 4 remained unchanged.

In Chittagong, the CSCX or selective categories index closed 0.73 per cent higher at 5340.92, while the CASPI or all-share price index finished at 8219.77 slipping by 0.655 per cent.

The CSE-30 also fell by 0.444 per cent to end on 7507.56.

Islami Bank topped the turnover board, rising 162.50 per cent to Tk 80.46 million at DSE.