Volatility and downtrend on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) continued for a third consecutive session yesterday as worried investors were in a ‘wait-and-see’ mood about the court decision on minimum share-holding rule.

The High Court hearing on the minimum two percent share-holding by company sponsor-directors, which was scheduled to be held on Wednesday, is now set to take place today.

“As the political outlook clouded today (Wednesday), investors preferred safe territory rather than fresh investment and followed wait-and-see policy,” said IDLC in its regular market analysis.

The session started with a positive note with the key market index advancing 66 points in the first 90 minutes on the expectation of a positive outcome of the court hearing.

But news of jail sentence of top leaders of main opposition BNP and its allies adversely affected the market, ebbing the early gains.

The benchmark DGEN General Index, the main yardstick of DSE, ended at 5,010 points, after shedding 10 points or 0.19 per cent.

The broader All Shares Price Index, DSI, also declined 5 points or 0.10 per cent to 4,224 points while the DSE-20 index comprising blue-chip shares plunged 29 points or 0.76 per cent to 3,816.

Out of 260 issues traded, 135 gained, 100 declined and the rest 25 remained unchanged.

Thanks to the session’s flat movement, all the major sectors made negligible change with general insurance gaining 2.32 percent, non-bank financial institutions 0.73 percent and power 0.25 percent. Telecommunication remained almost flat.

Banks lost 0.66 percent, while pharmaceuticals witnessed negligible fall.

Day’s total turnover value stood at Tk 3.5 billion, which was 19.4 percent lower than that of the previous session.

Khulna Power Company Limited topped the turnover chart yesterday with a total turnover value of Tk 165.4 million.

Pioneering Insurance was the top gainer of the day while Standard Insurance was the worst loser.

The Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ 17th May 2012