KPCL’s trading suspended

The prime bourse yesterday suspended the trading of Khulna Power Company Ltd (KPCL) just three days after a corporate sponsor of the electricity producer announced to go for selling off 1.80 crore shares.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange believes such a huge sell-off through the regular market may affect the general investors, said a director of the DSE preferring anonymity.

On last Sunday, Summit Corporation disseminated a news through DSE website that it would sell 28.34 percent of its total holding of 6.37 crore shares of KPCL at the prevailing market price in the next 30 workdays.

If any sponsor of a company goes for such huge sell-offs, they should do it through the block market, said the director. “Otherwise, the general investors as well as the market get affected.”

The announcement of the sell-off came at a time when KPCL's share price almost doubled—from Tk 67 to Tk 139.3—in a gap of only two months, he said.

“It looks suspicious. We think there is also some other information, which was not disseminated among the investors. So, we had to take the decision.”

The sponsor should explain why it wants to sell off the shares so that investors do not get panicked, another director of the DSE said.

According to the listing regulations, the suspension shall remain in force for a period of 30 days and the exchange may extend for further periods not exceeding 15 days at any time.

However, there was no ban on KPCL in the Chittagong Stock Exchange. The stock of the power producer rose 1.74 percent from the previous day to Tk 99.20 in the CSE yesterday.

The Dhaka stocks rose yesterday after experiencing a five-day fall, as the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) started investing from its Tk 2,000 crore worth bond. “We have collected some money by issuing the bond. We have to collect all the money from the institutional investors so that we can support the market when it needs,” said Mojib Uddin Ahmed, chairman of ICB.

The benchmark index of the Dhaka stocks—DSEX—rose 37.85 points, or 0.72 percent, to close the day at 5,242.21.

Turnover, another important indicator of the DSE, rose 10.11 percent to Tk 484.48 crore.

SK Trims was the top traded stock with 48.51 lakh shares worth Tk 20.75 crore changing hands, followed by Saiham Cotton, VFS Thread Dyeing, BBS Cables and Intraco Refueling.

ML Dyeing was the day's best performer with a 9.97 percent gain while Peoples Leasing was the biggest loser, shedding 7.27 percent.

Gainers outnumbered losers by 206 to 80, while 49 securities remained unchanged.

The key index of the port city bourse also rose by 54.83 points before finishing the day at 9,735.66.

The port city bourse traded 66.71 lakh shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 21.93 crore.