Stocks tumbled on Thursday as panic gripped investors amid soaring trends of Covid-19 infections and death in recent days in the country.
The market opened on a downward trend which continued until the end of the session with no sign of reversal.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 81.71 points or 1.48 per cent to settle below 5500-mark to 5,434.
Market analysts said investors dumped their holdings riding on the news that daily Covid-19 infections and death are rising alarmingly in recent days in the country.
Many feared and went to sell-offs shares following the news that DGHS has proposed for full lockdown in the wake of the rising number of Covid-19 patients, said an analyst.
However, the stock market regulator assured that there is no possibility to shut the market like before.
In the last 10 days, the transmission of novel coronavirus had been gradually rising every day with experts fearing spread of the new strains of novel coronavirus, including those first detected in the UK and South Africa.
Two other indices also ended lower with the DSE 30 Index, comprising blue chips, slumped 37.98 points to finish at 2,073 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) plunged 13.97 points to close at 1,247.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, fell to Tk 6.84 billion, which was 2.0 per cent lower over the previous day’s turnover of Tk 6.98 billion.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers, as out of 360 issues traded, 239 declined, 29 advanced and 92 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco - the flagship company of Beximco Group- was the most-traded stock with shares worth about Tk823 million changing hands, followed by Robi (Tk 363 million), Beximco Pharma (Tk 299 million), LankaBangla Finance (Tk 223 million), and LafargeHolcim (Tk 219 million).
Low-cap companies dominated the day’s top gainer chart with Aziz Pipes was the day’s top gainer, posting a gain of 9.98 per cent while Peoples Leasing was the worst loser, losing 6.99 per cent.
A total number of 159,157 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 166.52 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE also plunged to Tk 4,720 billion on Thursday, down from Tk 4,785 billion in the previous session.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended sharply lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –losing 217 points to settle at 15,750 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX shedding 131 points to close at 9,500.
Of the issues traded, 160 declined, 28 advanced and 44 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city’s bourse traded 7.63 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 242 million.