The turnover of Dhaka Stock Exchange dipped to a seven-and-a-half-month low to Tk 241.04 crore in volatile trading on Thursday with the index falling marginally as the retail investors continued to remain cautious and institutional ones sat on the fence.
The DSE witnessed the year’s lowest turnover at Tk 206.41 crore on January 25 after a series of crashes of the DGEN, or the benchmark price index of the bourse.
Market operators said that most of the investors were reluctant in trading on the day as the market was going through an uncertainty after Eid vacation with the DGEN falling for four consecutive day before rising slightly on Wednesday in an unusual late surge.
The benchmark general index of the DSE, or DGEN, on Thursday lost 18.22 points, or 0.29 per cent, to close at 6,077.31 points in a topsy-turvy trading.
Market operators said the institutional investors, especially, continued to remain inactive as they wanted to put pressure on the Securities and Exchange Commission to ease its hard line against the anomalies of merchant banks and mutual funds.
‘As the SEC went on a hard line against the merchant banks and the mutual funds, they became inactive to pressurise the commission,’ said a stockbroker.
The SEC in the backdrop of the current bear run in the market decided to ask for the investment details of the mutual funds, said an SEC official.
He also said an elaborate report on the performance of the merchant banks was submitted in front of the commission for consideration.
‘A number of merchant banks are only engaged in brokerage operation, sidelining their legal responsibilities like introducing new issues to the market,’ the official said.
Seeking anonymity, a member of the commission said, ‘If we found merchant banks are not complying with their responsibilities, the commission would take action against them.’
Meanwhile, based on turnover volume of the brokerage houses, the DSE is scheduled to sit with top 30 brokers on Sunday to address the current liquidity crisis of the market.
‘We will sit with the top brokers to discuss about the decreasing turnover of the market,’ said DSE senior vice president Ahasanul Islam.
The bourse’s turnover earlier hit an all-time high of Tk 3,249.57 crore on December 5, when the market witnessed a boom, but it plunged to Tk 206.41 crore on January 25, following a series of huge stocks crashes that discouraged the investors from trading.
The turnover of the DSE was only Tk 68 crore on January 20 but the trading of the bourse was suspended on that day after just five minutes of trading.
The turnover of the bourse posted a record high of the year of Tk 1,957.92 crore on July 24 as the investors, especially the institutional ones, became active in the market.
But from the end of July, the market entered the negative zone yet again and the turnover started to slide. The turnover of the burse was between Tk 305.80 crore and Tk 372.88 crore in the last four trading sessions until Thursday.
Of the 253 issues traded on Thursday, 80 advanced, 156 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
Courtesy of New Age
