Bourse shakes off brief panic

Within just 15 minutes of opening on the first trading session after Eid holidays, it suffered a drop of 150 points that it recovered gradually over the remaining hours.

Still, the total number of transactions and total value plunged by 31 percent and 36 percent respectively.

Turnover stood at Tk 1,028 crore on the Dhaka Stock Exchange, which traded more than 5.35 crore during a trading period one hour shorter than the reduced time during the month of Ramadan.

The reason cited by brokers and traders was the ban on “netting” in non-marginable securities, which began yesterday. Another reason was that some were not set to trade so soon after the holiday.

A merchant banker said many of the investors who left Dhaka to celebrate Eid were not back yet, and those that are may be “nervous because of the regulator's latest move on netting”.

“Those investors were confused whether they would sell or hold shares from their portfolios," he said. "Those who went for panic sales in the opening minutes were upset when the market recovered the losses," he added.

The market closed nearly flat, with the benchmark DSE General index down just 10.76 points, or 0.15 percent, to 6,796.

Non-bank financial institutions were the biggest losers, led by Investment Corporation of Bangladesh.

ICB declared a 15 percent cash dividend and 25 percent stock dividend. But the corporate declaration did not match expectations, and each share dropped nearly 15 percent.

Telecom was also in negative territory, but banks, pharmaceuticals, and fuel and power closed on the higher ground.

Advancers beat losers 150 to 91, with nine securities unchanged.

Beximco Ltd, the flagship of conglomerate Beximco Group, topped the turnover leaders at 19.57 lakh shares worth Tk 63.68 crore traded on the floor.

Chittagong stocks fell slightly, with the CSE Selective Categories Index sliding 26 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,909.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange traded more than 59.49 lakh shares and mutual fund units on a value of Tk 91.85 crore.