Stocks drop after delayed start in trading

The DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), dropped straight from the start of the session on Sunday after a 90-minute delay owing to a technical malfunction.

The trading started at 11:00 am instead of 9:30am, which continued until 2:35pm.

According to a statement from the DSE, there was no technical error causing the interruption. DSE market operations mistakenly tripped circuit breakers for all securities instead of 70 securities on Sunday. As a result, the market was closed for the first 90 minutes.

The DSEX plunged by 44.0 points and settled at 6,334 points as against 6,378 points in the previous trading session.

Among other indices, the DSES, the Shariah-based index, declined by 12.7 points to close at 1,389, and the DS30, the blue-chip index, dropped 20.5 points to 2,245.

General insurance, ceramics, and IT sectors closed higher on the day, while services & real estate, miscellaneous, and paper & printing declined.

Meanwhile, total turnover decreased by 24.51 per cent to Tk 826 crore. The pharmaceutical sector dominated the turnover chart, covering 20.14 per cent of total turnover.

Earlier, last Monday, share trading at the Dhaka bourse remained halted for about three hours due to a technical glitch with the trading server.

A server error occurred just one-and-a-half hours after the trading started, disrupting the trading from 10:58am to 2:09pm.

The DSE was back to trading at 2:10pm and the trading session formally ended at 2:30pm.

Meanwhile, the securities regulator Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) formed a five-member probe committee the same day to look into the issue and the trading operations of the Dhaka bourse and its IT efficiency, said a media statement issued by the BSEC. The probe body, led by BSEC Director Mohammad Abul Hasan, was asked to submit the report in the next 30 working days.

EBL Securities, in its daily market commentary, said that the market dropped straight from the start of the session after a 90-minute delay owing to a technical malfunction, as investors opted for partial liquidation of their holdings with negative expectations on the bourse after no decision regarding purchasing stocks before cheque encashment came from the market regulator.

Out of the 389 issues traded, 44 advanced, 91 declined, and 254 remained unchanged on the DSE.

Most of the sectors displayed dismal returns, out of which services (-2.8 per cent), Paper (-2.8 per cent) and miscellaneous (-2.2 per cent) exerted the most corrections, while general insurance (1.8 per cent), ceramic (0.7 per cent) and IT (0.5 per cent) exhibited some positive returns on the bourse on Sunday.

Besides, Chartered Life Insurance Company Limited on the day started trading shares on bourses under the “N” category. Its share price rose by 10 per cent to Tk 11.