Stocks finished the week in jittery trade, as relentless panic pulled the index and turnover down yesterday.
The General Index (DGEN) of Dhaka Stock Exchange suffered a 146-point or 2.2-percent loss and came down to 6,527 at the end of a four-hour trading session — frustrating millions of retail investors.
DSE President Shakil Rizvi, however, urged the investors not to go for panic sale.
“With a massive correction in the market, prices of shares of many companies went down below their fundamentals. If people invest in such securities for a sustained period, instead of trying short-term escapades, they will pay dividends and investors will not lose,” he said.
“Be an investor, not a daily trader,” he asked investors.
Some dispirited investors, however, tried to bring out street processions in front of the premier bourse, but law-enforcement agencies dispersed them quickly and brought the situation under control.
As a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward situation, the police stopped traffic, except for rickshaws, between Shapla Square and Ittefaq crossing at 1:45pm. Traffic resumed around 3:30pm.
Insiders said the topsy-turvy trading curve showed the investors are yet to regain confidence. Also, some contentious comments on the share market by the chief of a parliamentary standing committee broke the investors’ heart further, they said.
AHM Mostafa Kamal, chief of the parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry, on Tuesday said the market index was 2,700 points in 2009, which touched 10,000 points in two years, so retail investors will have to stomach losses until the index comes down to 3,000 to 3,500 points.
Kamal also described Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s blaming the opposition BNP for the ongoing stocks crisis as ‘a political statement’.
Insiders said his comments impacted the market negatively while as a business leader he was supposed to speak in favour of bringing back stability in the market.
Commenting on Kamal’s remark, the DSE president said the index is not the basic gauge of Bangladesh stockmarket. “The price earnings (PE) ratio is the basic parameter to judge our stockmarket,” he said, adding that the average market PE came down to 18, which was over 24 at the end of 2010.
On the other hand, he said, the market situation will determine the index level. Starting with a falling trend, the market witnessed a strong volatility throughout the session with many ups and downs.
Losers outnumbered gainers 233 to 17 on the prime bourse that traded more than 5.05 crore shares and mutual fund units on a value of Tk 563 crore.
