Midland Bank slightly up on stock debut

Midland Bank Ltd closed slightly higher on its first trading day at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) yesterday.

The private commercial bank, which raised Tk 70 crore by issuing seven crore ordinary shares through an initial public offering, saw its share fall to Tk 9 at the opening of the trading hour.

It ended up 2 per cent to Tk 10.20 at the close on the main bourse of Bangladesh.

Thanks to the gain, Midland Bank became one of the 28 listed scrips on the premier bourse of Bangladesh whose prices advanced, while the shares of 72 companies declined as investors continued to act cautiously in the high-inflationary environment.

 However, the market ended in the red yesterday. The DSEX, the benchmark index of the DSE, lost 11 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 6,203.

The DS30, the blue-chip index, decreased 0.11 per cent to 2,215 while the DSES, the shariah-compliant index, went down 0.26 per cent to 1,349.

The key index of the DSE gradually slipped after witnessing some positive vibe in the first hour of the session since investors have continued to act cautiously amid the ongoing high-inflationary environment, said International Leasing Securities Ltd in its daily market analysis. 

Inflation rose 8.78 per cent in February, breaking a five-month declining trend. It surged to a 10-year high of 9.52 per cent in August, driven by higher commodity prices in the global markets owing to the Russian-Ukraine war.

And Planning Minister AMA Mannan has warned that inflation might go up in March as well owing to a spike in demand for essential commodities on the occasion of Ramadan.

Despite investors' watchful sentiment as well as the reduced trading time because of the fasting month, turnover increased 10.7 per cent to Tk 317.6 crore.

Among the sectors, only travel and leisure and jute ended the session with gain, adding 1.1 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.

The paper and printing sector shed 2.2 per cent, the service sector was down 1 per cent, the tannery sector slipped 0.8 per cent and the IT sector gave up 0.6 per cent.

Legacy Footwear made the highest gain with an increase of 9.9 per cent. Unique Hotel & Resorts and Intech Ltd rose more than 8 per cent while Samata Leather Complex advanced over 7 per cent.

Sonali Paper & Board Mills was the highest loser, shedding 4.7 per cent.

Islami Commercial Insurance Company, Meghna Pet Industries, Monno Agro & General Machinery, and Union Insurance Company were also on the list of significant losers.

Unique Hotel was the most-traded stock with its issues worth Tk 41 crore transacting. Eastern Housing, Sea Pearl Beach Resort & Spa, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, and Orion Pharma witnessed significant turnover as well.

The Caspi, the all-share price index of the Chittagong Stock Exchange, dropped 47 points, or 0.26 per cent, to close at 18,326.

Of the issues, 17 rose, 40 retreated and 36 did not see any price swing.

Turnover on the port city bourse plummeted more than 40 per cent to Tk 7.19 crore.