Dhaka stocks continued to slide on Wednesday in yet another volatile trading session as a section of nervous investors went for heavy selling while large investors remained inactive to see the market falls further to pounce on the relatively cheap share.
Although the state-run Investment Corporation of Bangladesh tried to halt the heavy slide of the market, sustained selling pressure of the investors panicked by last few days’ volatility, pulled down the index at the day’s closing.
The DGEN, the benchmark general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, on the day lost 15.13 points, or 0.24 per cent, to close at 6,162.68 points, after fluctuating heavily throughout the trading session.
Turnover on the day dropped to one-and-half month low at Tk 446.96 crore from that of Tk 501.61 crore in the previous day as institutional investors continued to remain in the sideline. On June 22 turnover was the lowest since Wednesday at Tk 444.67 crore.
Market operators said the general investors’ mood remained damp and they continued with sell-offs on Wednesday following the downtrend in the market for the last two weeks, which was initially caused by poor corporate disclosures of some listed companies and the Bangladesh Bank’s tight monetary policy and aggravated by the regulator’s announcement to file cases against suspected market manipulators.
‘The fact is that the market is facing liquidity crisis and there is almost no activities from the large investors who have taken a wait-and-see policy to watch the market behaviour when the SEC files cases against the market manipulators. They know that the market might fall further and they are waiting to pounce on the trading floor to buy cheap shares,’ said an operator.
On Tuesday, the Anti-Corruption Commission announced that it would file case against four people including an executive director of Securities and Exchange Commission for market manipulation during the January’s stock market crash and many of the large investors are now waiting to see the SEC’s legal action against some other market manipulators.
The ICB’s move somewhat saved the day from a big plunge.
Md Fayekuzzaman, managing director of the ICB, said, ‘We are trying to keep the market afloat and today we also bought with the same motive.’
After the day’s opening bell, the DGEN lost around 40 points in 20 minutes, which it recovered in the next five minutes, and again lost in next 20 minutes.
At 11:35am, the general index lost 22.77 points to stand at 6,155.04 points which shot up in the next half-an-hour to stand at 6175.34 points at around 12:06pm.
‘Whenever the index went into positive zone, some investors took the opportunity to sell off their shares in fear that the gains would not sustain. The low turnover on the day is not a good sign for the market,’ said a stockbroker.
Heavy gains in share price of market giant Grameenphone by 6.28 per cent and marginal gain of MJL Bangladesh on Wednesday might have saved the day from a sharp fall, said market operators.
In the past two weeks the investors staged rowdy demonstration in the streets of Motijheel, protesting the free fall of share prices.
The DGEN lost 548 points till Wednesday in the latest bear run that began at the end of July.
Of the 250 issues traded on Wednesday, 121 gained, 121 declined and eight remained unchanged.
Grameenphone topped the list of the day’s turnover leaders, with its share worth Tk 30.56 crore changing hands. The rest on the top-10 list were Beximco, City Bank, RN Spinning Mills, United Airways, Lafarge Surma Cement, Keya Cosmetics Ltd, Malek Spinning Mills, One Bank Ltd and MI Cement.
-With New Age input
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