The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Uncertainty over the elections has sparked fear among the investors of political instability, pushing the Dhaka Stock Exchange back to losing streak yesterday, a day after four days of decline stopped on Wednesday with slight gains.

Stockbrokers said the investors on Wednesday expected that there would be a solution to the problem about holding the election, but the hope faded by the end of the day. "This caused an adverse reaction among the already shaken investors," said one of them.

As a result, the trading opened yesterday only to nosedive. The DSE General Index fell as low as 61 points to stand at 2,565 within 45 minutes of trading from Wednesday's 2,626 points.

The institutional investors, however, came to rescue the market from further fall through placement of heavy buying orders. This helped the benchmark index recover gradually before closing the day only 10 points or 0.38 percent lower at 2,616 points, said a merchant banker.

The All Shares Price Index (DSI) dropped 9 points or 0.41 percent to close at 2,162 while the DSE-20 index of selective shares shed 2 points or 0.11 percent to close at 2,193 points.

Of the total 229 issues traded on the day, 87 registered gains, 131 incurred losses and 11 remained unchanged.

The day's total turnover dropped to Tk 2.01 billion from Tk 2.49 billion Wednesday while market capitalization declined to Tk 959 billion from Tk 962 billion.

Beximco Pharma, Uttara Bank, Beximco, Titas Gas, Dutch-Bangla Bank, ACI, ICB 2nd NRB, Summit Power, GRAMEENS2 and Lankabangla Finance were the day's turnover leaders in terms of value.

The day's volume leaders were AIMS 1st Mutual Fund, Beximco Pharma, Beximco Textiles, GRAMEENS2, Beximco, Keya Detergent, Golden Son, Keya Cosmetics, Agni Systems Limited and BD Com. Top gainers of the day were Savar Refractories, Beximco, Desh Garments, 8th ICB, Beximco Synthetics, Beximco Pharma, 2nd ICB, Orion Infusion, BD Online and Samata Leather.