The turnover of the Dhaka Stock Exchange dipped to a seven-month low of Tk 285.64 crore in volatile trading on Tuesday with the investors waiting to see the outcome of the cases filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against five alleged market manipulators and the market behaviour following the regulatory action before deciding their trading strategy.
The DSE witnessed the year’s lowest turnover at Tk 206.41 crore on January 25.
The benchmark general index of the DSE, or DGEN, on Tuesday lost 11.76 points, or 0.19 per cent, to close at 6,045.62 points in fickle trading.
Market operators said majority of the investors on the day refrained from trading as they remained sceptical about the market going for the black due to a number of reasons. Besides, with only two days remaining before the 9-day Eid vacation starts on the DSE, some of the investors decided it was not a time suitable for serious trading.
They said the latest volatility in the market and the panic prevailing among the investors were sparked by a rumour that some big market players were going for large-scale disinvestment following the announcement made by the SEC that it was set to take legal action against some suspected market manipulators.
The panic intensified further after finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith had said last week that the government was making some changes to the statutory regulatory order relating to money-whitening to stop investment of money laundered or obtained through terror routes in the capital market, they said.
The angry investors on Tuesday took to the streets to protest the fall in share prices over the past one month. The rage of the investors demonstrating in front of the DSE building on the day was mainly directed at the finance minister. They termed him the mastermind behind the January’s stock market crash and demanded that he should resign immediately for his failure to stabilise the market.
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.
A liquidity crisis also hit the market at that time as most of the banks and other large investors went for bulk selling in December and pocketed hefty profits.
After the dull period of January-February, the market began to get back onto the track in March, when the turnover of the bourse crossed the Tk 1,000 crore mark for the first time after the crashes.
The turnover of the DSE rose to Tk 1,592.60 crore on March 21 with the DGEN standing at 6,528.20 points.
However, the market started to slip again in mid-April as investors turned panicky once more, following uncertainty about the implementation of the recommendations made by the probe committee on January’s stocks crash.
The market began to rebound after the government on June 29 had allowed investment of undisclosed money in stocks. 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 declined to Tk 285.64 crore on Tuesday.
Of the 195 issues traded on Tuesday, 120 advanced, 124 declined, and 11 remained unchanged.
-With New Age input
