Dhaka stocks sink deeper, investors bleed

Stocks are tumbling and investors are bleeding for quite some time. Now fears over rising prices of food and energy commodities and slowing economic growth have spread among investors of the Dhaka and Chattogram stock markets.

DSEX, the broader index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) shed 115 points or 1.84 percent to close at 6,142 on Sunday. 

With this, Dhaka stock exchanges are in a free fall for the consecutive eight days, where 555 points lost by pushing investors into a panic mode.

In this situation, investors have lost their way in the fall of so many indices in just eight working days, market insiders say.

Azad Ahsan Bachchu, a leader of Bangladesh Capital Market Investors Unity Council, said in the current market situation, many ordinary investors are going to become destitute again. “Many have feared a catastrophic market slide,” he said.

The other two indices also fell sharply. The shariah-based DSES dropped 21.31 points or 1.54 percent and blue-chip DS30 declined 39.51 points or 1.70 percent.

Beximco Limited, BATBC, Beximco Pharma, BRAC Bank, and LafargeHolcim were the top five index draggers in the market on Sunday.

The DSE saw a turnover of Tk 682.21 crore, up by Tk 13.33 crore from the previous session.

Shares of the 379 companies traded on the day, of which only 21 firms gained, 345 lost and 13 remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, shares of Southeast Bank were the most-traded by value on the DSE as its shares worth Tk 70.25 crore were traded on the day.

IPDC Finance, which was the second most-traded stock, had a turnover of Tk 39.17 crore and Beximco Limited was in the third position with shares worth Tk 35.73 crore changing hands.

Other companies with top-traded shares were Delta Life, BSC, JHRML, Salvo Chemical, GSP Finance, ACI Formulations and Shinepukur Ceramics.

The banking sector rose to the top position in terms of transactions. The total turnover in this sector was over Tk 114 crore, which was 17.29 percent of the total turnover.

The miscellaneous sector was at the second position with Tk 87.5 crore turnover, followed by pharmaceuticals and chemicals with Tk 74.4 crore.

Meanwhile, the overall index CASPI of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) decreased 362 points to 18,077 and securities worth Tk 17.03 crore were traded on the day.