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Dhaka stocks dropped on Sunday as share prices of Grameenphone plunged following a Supreme Court order that asked the mobile operator to pay telecom regulator Tk 2,000 crore out of Tk 12,579.95 crore in ‘disputed’ audit claim in three months.
DSEX, the key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, lost 0.38 per cent, or 18.23 points, to close at 4,688.42 points on Sunday after gaining 14.73 points in the previous session.
After a slight upward trend, the market started falling after the Supreme Court ordered Grameenphone, the largest capitalised company listed on the country’s stock exchanges, to pay Tk 2,000 crore to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
Market operators said shares of Grameenphone witnessed panic selling that reversed the market movement to the negative trend as the concern spilled over into many local and foreign investors at the market.
Grameenphone shares lost Tk 18.4 or 5.58 per cent in the session.
The tussle between GP and BTRC over the audit claim was a long-standing issue and investors had got some relief last week, presuming that the dispute over the audit claim would be settled as GP agreed to deposit Tk 200 crore.
The DSEX again came down below 4,600 points, spoiling the investors’ expectation of a market recovery.
Besides, poor financial disclosers by many listed companies disheartened investors.
Another company Safco Spinning declared no dividend for the year 2018-19 and was placed in the junk category after nine companies were sent to the ‘Z’ category as they failed to give dividend to their shareholders.
Many prominent companies including Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, Bashundhara Paper Mills, ACI Limited, Shahjibazar Power Company, BSRM Steel, Titas Gas declared profit fall in the July-September period.
EBL Securities in its daily market commentary said, ‘Supreme Court’s order to GP to pay Tk 2,000 crore in three months has caused GP’s share price to fall sharply, which had the most adverse effect on the DSEX. Investors also applied selling pressure on bank and pharmaceuticals sectors.’
The average share prices of telecommunication, bank, non-bank financial institution and pharmaceutical sectors dropped by 5.03 per cent, 0.75 per cent, 0.52 per cent and 0.44 per cent respectively.
Share prices of textile, food and engineering advanced by 1.56 per cent, 1.03 per cent and 0.75 per cent respectively.
Turnover on the DSE slumped to Tk 377.19 crore on Sunday from Tk 421.01 crore in the previous day.
Out of the 340 scrips traded on the day, 167 declined, 138 advanced and 33 remained unchanged.
DSE blue-chip index DS30 shed 0.75 per cent, or 12.46 points, to close at 1,638.16 points.
Shariah index DSES lost 0.54 per cent, or 5.94 points, to end at 1,075.82 points.
Beacon Pharmaceuticals led the turnover chart with its shares worth Tk 11.16 crore changing hands on Sunday.
National Tubes, Sonar Bangla Insurance, Grameenphone, VFS Thread Dyeing, BBS Cables, Asian Insurance, Silva Pharmaceuticals, Bangladesh Submarine Cable
Company and Kattali Textile were the other turnover leaders.
National Feed Mill gained the most on the day with a 10-per cent increase in its share prices while Safco Spinning Mills performed the worst, losing 23.07 per cent.
(NA)
