Trading and official activities on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) will resume on Sunday after the Eid-ul-Azha holidays.
The bourses remained closed for five days, from July 20 to 24, on the occasion of the Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival of the Muslims, including weekly holidays.
Stock trading will remain open for three hours in line with the banking schedule during the government-enforced latest strict lockdown (July 23 to August 5).
Trading on the bourses will begin at 10:00 am as usual and continue until 1:00 pm instead of the normal schedule from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm.
Pre-opening and post-closing sessions will be 9:45 am to 10:00 am and 1:00 pm to 1:15 pm respectively. The new schedule will be continued until further notice, DSE officials said.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka bourse performed well on July 19, the last trading day before the Eid holidays, and the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), surpassing the 6,400-mark for the first time since its inception in 2013.
DSEX, the core index of the DSE, went up by 39.92 points or 0.62 per cent to settle at an all-time high at 6,405 points on July 19.
DSEX was introduced more than eight years back on January 27, 2013, replacing the then key index -- DGEN. However, the all-time high DGEN was 8,918 recorded on December 5, 2010, when the market saw a bull run before a crash.
The blue-chip index DS30, a group of 30 prominent companies, also rose 16.35 points to settle at an all-time high at 2,322, after its inception on January 27, 2013.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also hit a fresh all-time high at Tk 5,351 billion on July 19, surpassing the previous high of Tk 5,323 billion recorded just a day before.
The port city bourse CSE also ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI – soaring 190 points to settle at 18569 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –rising 117 points to finish at 11,147 on July 19.
Market operators said the regulatory decision to keep the market open despite the countrywide strict lockdown encouraged investors to put fresh bets on major sector stocks amid post-Eid expectations.
