Market jumps 50 points riding on circuit breaker limit

The regulator’s lowering of the circuit breaker limit guided the capital market to gain 50 points to settle at 6,251 on Thursday.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on Wednesday imposed a maximum reduction rate of 2 percent.

The decision came as various directives from the finance minister and the regulator failed to prevent the market from taking a deeper dive.

However, the move brought little relief for the investors. As a result, the index remained tense since the start of trading on Thursday.

In the first hour, the benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) fell by 15 points. Over the next two and a half hours, the index continued to rise and fall.

However, in the last hour, the index continued to rise due to the state-owned investment corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) buying shares and giving support.

This prompted shares of most companies, including power, banking, insurance and the financial sector to rise.

From 1:38pm to 2:30pm, the DSEX rose 56 points from 6,194 to 6,251. However, at the end of the adjustment, it decreased by 14 points and stood at 6,237.

Among the two other indices, the shariah-based DSES was up by 10.24 points or 0.75 percent and blue-chip DS30 rose 19.39 points or 0.84 percent.

The DSE saw a turnover of Tk 539 crore, up by Tk 26 crore from the previous session.

Shares of the 374 companies were traded on the day, of which 273 firms gained, 61 lost and 40 remained unchanged.

Shares of Beximco Limited were the most-traded by value on the DSE as its shares worth Tk 60.49 crore were traded on the day.

IPDC Finance, which was the second most-traded stock, had a turnover of Tk 38.58 crore and Fortune Shoes Tk 37.90 crore.

Other top-traded shares were BSC, BD Finance, JHRML, GSP Finance, Shinepukur Ceramics, ACI Formulations and Square Pharmaceuticals.

The miscellaneous sector climbed to the top position in terms of transactions. The total turnover in this sector was over Tk 109.8 crore, which was 21.77 percent of the total turnover.

The financial institution sector was at the second position with nearly Tk 84.5 crore turnover, followed by the pharmaceuticals and chemicals sector at Tk 52.7 crore.

Meanwhile, the overall index CASPI of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) increased 118 points to 18,280 and securities worth Tk 13.62 crore were traded on the day.