Stocks end three-day rally

Stocks dipped on Thursday, snapping a three-day winning streak caused by floor price withdrawals of some companies and partly profit-booking.

The share prices of 66 companies declined following the removal of their floor prices set by the securities regulator a year ago. The companies were the worst losers as out of the top ten losers, all came from those companies.

“The decision has pulled down the market, as the share prices were adjusted due to the lifting floor prices,” said a stockbroker.

In March last year, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission set the floor prices of listed securities to arrest abnormal price fall caused by the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

All three major Dhaka stock indexes were down. In a reversal from Wednesday, the large-cap stocks weighed heaviest on the broad index.

The benchmark DSEX index fell 82 points or 1.54% to close at 5,254.

Other indices, the Shariah-based DSES index lost 16 points or 1.35% to 1,197 and blue-chip DS30 dropped 20 points or 1% to 1,990.

“Yet, we cannot be ruled out profit-taking after several back-to-back rallies,” said another stockbroker. “I think it’s somewhat anxiety over the pandemic as investors preferred to book quick profits,” he said.

All the large-cap sectors posted negative performance with the NBFI experiencing the highest loss of 1.89%.

The profit-booking selling pressure also took place on energy, telecommunication, engineering, and banks, which shed around 2% each.

In contrast, the insurance sector continued to perform well. Among the top ten gainers, nine came from insurers led by Provati Insurance that hit the almost upper limit circuit.

The participation in two hours long trading session shortened due to the lockdown decreased as the turnover stood at Tk 476 crore, down more than 8% over the previous session.

The newly listed Index Agro Industries Limited edged just over 3% down to Tk 72.4 in its second trading day after flying start on the debut day.

No buyers were not seen interested to put funds on the new stocks after it reported profits decline in quarter two of the current fiscal year.

Bangladesh Export Import Company that slipped almost 3% was the most traded share with a turnover of Tk 38.5 crore, followed by Robi, Asia Pacific Insurance, Provati Insurance, Purabi General Insurance, and Agrani Insurance.

Bangladesh entered the fourth day of a one-week-long countrywide lockdown imposed by the government to prevent the spread of coronavirus.