New issues lift stocks

The debut of two new issues pulled up the indices of Dhaka Stock Exchange on the first day of the New Year yesterday.

Maksons Spinning Mills has joined the stock market by floating 80 lakh ordinary shares of Tk 10 each. The National Housing Finance and Investment has joined in by offloading five lakh ordinary shares of Tk 100 each.

The indices would have closed lower if the two companies had not debuted, market experts said. The two companies added 25 points to the indices.

The benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSE General Index, rose 12.27 points, or 0.43 percent to 2,807.61 points. The DSE All Share Price Index also increased 11.68 points, or 0.5 percent to 2,321.04 points.

Most securities however traded down on the DSE due mainly to corrections in prices following gains for a few days. Of the 234 traded issues, 97 advanced, 131 declined and six remained unchanged.

The market opened with a big jump in the index. The DGEN gained about 40 points in the first few minutes. In 30-minute trade, the gains stood at 20 points. The market gained another 20 points in the next 30 minutes.

In the next 60 minutes, the market witnessed a sharp decline. By the mid-session, it slipped to 2781 points, the day's lowest.

The market maintained an upward movement for the rest of the session. The DGEN ended higher over the previous day's trading.

A total of 3,52,44,566 shares worth Tk 430.65 crore changed hands on the premier bourse.

Summit Power topped the turnover leaders on the DSE with 3,31,700 traded shares worth Tk 32.63 crore. The other turnover leaders were Titas Gas, Beximco Pharma, ACI Formulations, Grameen Mutual Fund One: Scheme Two, ACI, AIMS 1st Mutual Fund, Shinepukur Ceramics, National Bank and Beximco.

Chittagong stocks marked a fall. The CSE Selective Categories Index declined 31.19 points, or 0.54 percent to 5649.39 points. The CSE All Share Price Index also fell 32.41 points, or 0.37 percent to 8660.33 points.

A total of 75,95,638 shares worth Tk 68.82 crore changed hands on the Chittagong Stock Exchange. Of the 143 traded scrips on the port city bourse, 65 advanced, 70 declined and eight remained unchanged.

Beximco Pharma topped the turnover leaders on the CSE with 3,69,000 traded shares worth Tk 6.11 crore. The other turnover leaders were Summit Power, Grameen Mutual Fund One: Scheme Two, Beximco, AIMS 1st Mutual Fund, Shinepukur Ceramics, ACI Formulations, Titas Gas, Maksons Spinning Mills and National Housing Finance and Investment.