DSEX keeps falling, turnover drops below Tk 150cr

Imran Khan · Jan 4, 2023

DSEX keeps falling, turnover drops below Tk 150cr

Staff Correspondent | Published: 18:23, Jan 02,2023 | Updated: 22:26, Jan 02,2023

A file photo shows investors monitoring share price movements on computer screens at a brokerage house in the capital Dhaka. Dhaka stocks dropped with low turnover for the second day on Monday as investors remained concerned about their investments amid economic and other market-related issues, market operators said. — New Age photo

Dhaka stocks dropped with low turnover for the second day on Monday as investors remained concerned about their investments amid economic and other market-related issues, market operators said.
They said that floor price withdrawal from a number of companies and the current economic crisis were behind the investors’ poor confidence in the market.
DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, lost 17.49 points, or 0.28 per cent, and settled at 6,177.87 points on Monday after losing 11.44 points in the previous trading session.
The turnover on Dhaka bourse declined by 17.9 per cent and stood at Tk 146.51 crore on Monday as against Tk 178.42 crore in the previous session.
Monday’s turnover hit nearly a 30-month low as it was the lowest after July 7, 2020 when it was at Tk 138.56 crore.
The market had struggled with the Covid pandemic and various restrictions in 2020.
The market remained negative throughout Monday’s session as investors continued offloading shares, the market operators said.
They said that investors were worried as the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on December 21 removed floor prices from 169 companies.
Investors now apprehended that the BSEC might withdraw floor prices from the other companies too, they said.
The BSEC on July 28 imposed floor prices on all companies to prevent share prices of the companies from falling beyond a certain level amid economic worries.
The country’s economy has been struggling in recent months with a host of issues, including inflation, dollar crisis, pressure on forex reserves, trade deficit and energy crisis, the market operators said.
Besides, the investors’ confidence in the market dropped amid media reports on the banking sector’s irregularities, they said.
EBL Securities in its daily market commentary said, ‘Dhaka stocks logged extreme hurdles due to depressed market sentiment and confidence crisis on the trading floor, as investors were reluctant to inject funds into equities given the current market situation.’
Despite the new year’s enthusiasm, the market has struggled to attract investors’ participation as they deem the current trading prices overvalued due to floor price restrictions and believe that a correction is due on the market owing to the current macroeconomic adversities and the dismal financial performance of the listed companies, it said.
Among the sectors, pharmaceuticals and chemicals issues exerted the highest turnover, followed by engineering and IT stocks.
Almost all the sectors displayed dismal returns, out of which IT, paper and services exerted the most corrections, while only bank exhibited slight positive returns on the bourse on Monday.
Out of the 329 issues traded on the day, seven advanced, 158 declined, and 164 remained unchanged.
The DS30 index also declined by 2.17 points to finish at 2,191.43 points and the DSE Shariah index declined by 4.57 points to close at 1,351.01 points on the day.
Orion Pharma topped the turnover chart with its shares worth Tk 9.88 crore changing hands.
Monno Ceramic, Intraco Refueling Station, Anwar Galvanizing, Orion Infusion, Sea Pearl Beach Resort and Spa, Bashundhara Paper Mills, Chartered Life Insurance, Genex Infosys and Bangladesh Monospool Paper were the other turnover leaders on the day.

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