Dhaka stocks sink after rumor spreads over price floor withdrawal

After two sessions of gains, Dhaka stocks sank Monday as scared investors opted to offload their holdings upon rumors centering the price floor withdrawal, leading the prime index to give up more than 100 points in a day after nearly 5 months.

The DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), plunged 119.87 points or 1.82 per cent to settle at 6,450 points against 6,570 points in the previous trading session.

Among other indices, the DSES, the Shariah-based index suffered 27.61 points or 1.91 per cent to 1,415, and the DS30, the blue-chip index, dropped 47.43 points or 2.00 per cent to close at 2,314.

Turnover, another crucial market indicator, surged by 21.2 per cent to Tk 1417 crore in the DSE against the figure of Tk 1169.8 crore in the previous trading session.

The market started wading through choppy trading as investors’ concerns loomed over the ongoing macroeconomic concerns along with a bleaker national and global economic outlook, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.

Moreover, moderate corrections turned into steep free-fall by the mid-session as a groundless rumor regarding the floor price withdrawal spread across the trading floor, enticing the majority of investors to sell their holdings to avoid bigger losses.

On the sectoral front, pharma and chemical topped the turnover chart with a contribution of 23.4 per cent to the total turnover, followed by miscellaneous (13.4 per cent) and engineering (12.6 per cent) sectors.

Almost all the sectors displayed dismal returns in the Dhaka bourse on the day.

Of them, the travel sector suffered the most by giving up 9.3 per cent, followed by services (5.3 per cent) and it (4.1 per cent).

Out of the 387 issues traded, 20 stocks advanced, 167 issues declined, and 200 scrips did not see any price movement.

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also closed lower with its two major indices — the CSCX and the CASPI — plunging by 170.1 points and 282.8 points respectively.

Meanwhile, the trading of government securities, mostly known as treasury bonds and bills, started on a trial basis on the Dhaka and Chattogram stock exchanges.

But despite having buying orders, no bond trading could not take place because of some technical difficulties, said a DSE media statement.

Once the problems get resolved, bond trading will happen on both bourses.