According to the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), the transaction volume decreased by 53.91 per cent while its value a 49.50 per cent downward trend during the January-June period in 2006.

A total of 247.84 million shares and debentures valued Tk19,202.38 million were traded in 115 trading days during the period. During the same time span in the previous year, 537.84 million shares and debentures valued Tk38,029.59 million were traded.

The turnover recorded the highest level at Tk4,138.99 million in May with daily average of Tk197.09 million and the lowest was in February with daily average of Tk148 million.

The stock market price barometer also registered a downward trend during the period shedding 303.82 points in the DSE General Index. The index closed at 1643.34 points on January 30 this year, but it declined to 1339.52 points on June 29 this year. The index hit the lowest at 1003.79 points in June this year.

All Share Price Index in January was 1255.13 points, but it declined to 1040.47 points at the end of June.

The DSE-20 Index, which comprises the blue chip shares, pegged at 1555.42 points in January but fell sharply to close at 1310.86 on June 29, 2006. The index hit the lowest at 1261.70 points in June and highest at 1604.88 points in January.

Market capitalisation also declined by 2.98 per cent during the period. By the end of June 2006, the total market capitalisation of DSE for all listed securities declined to Tk215,421.87 million from Tk222,045.58 million of the previous year.

The financial sector dominated the DSE turnover, accounting for 55 per cent of the total turnover in the first six months of 2006 with bank stocks on the top followed by pharmaceutical accounting 10 per cent of the total turnover.

Fuel and power, insurance and IT accounted for 7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.

In volume wise, investment companies took the lead while pharmaceutical, food and textile sector followed the rally.

The four sectors accounted for 80.21 per cent of the total turnover in terms of value whereas the rest of 12 sectors contributed 19.79 per cent.

During the period, a total of 94 companies and mutual funds, out of total 256, have declared cash and stock dividend. The weighted average dividend yield by all the companies and mutual funds declined to 3.41 per cent in June 2006, down by 29.40 per cent from the same period of 2005.

The cash dividend status of the companies and funds shows that 10 companies declared more than 50 per cent dividend, 22 declared between 31 to 50 per cent, 24 between 21 to 30 per cent and 11 between 10 to 20 per cent while 15 declared below 10 per cent.

Sector wise average dividend distribution performance shows that nine sectors paid higher dividend up to June 2006 compared to that in the same period of June 2005, with miscellaneous sector taking the lead while six sectors paid lower dividend during the year compared to the preceding one.

Thirty four companies in different sector increased their paid up capital up to June 2006 through issuing bonus share which amounted to Tk4,335.14 million while one company in the banking sector issued right share worth Tk1,056.36 million.

The paid up capital of all the listed companies increased by 29.37 per cent to Tk85,893 million at the end of June 2006. Presently, 26 government treasury bonds are listed on the DSE with capital worth Tk21,032 million.

In the first half of 2006, three companies floated primary shares worth Tk698.90 million while six companies went to public with an amount of Tk761 million in the same period of the previous year. Of the three companies, one was directly listed without offering primary shares.

A total of nine companies including a company under Direct Listing Regulations-2006 with a paid up capital of Tk3,544.08 million have been listed with the premier bourse till June 2006.