Stocks plunged further Wednesday as panic-driven investors dumped their holdings amid fears of a fresh wave of the coronavirus.
The market opened lower which continued until the end of the session as panic gripped investors amid a soaring trend of Covid-19 infections and death in recent days.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), crashed by 83.60 points or 1.54 per cent to settle at 5,330, the lowest since February 24, this year.
Investors continued to lose their appetite on newly listed NRB Commercial Bank as its shares price fell further by 6.45 per cent to close at Tk 11.60 on Wednesday, the third day after debut.
The bank’s emerged as the fifth-worst loser on the third day of debut after losing more than 6.0 per cent on the previous day.
Unlike every debutant in recent trend, the NRBC Bank failed to attract many investors in its first three trading days on debut despite its profit after tax jumped 539 per cent year-on-year to Tk 1,406.42 million in January-September, 2020.
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.
Owing to a rising number of infections, investors apprehend that the country could be in for a second round of lock-down, said a top broker.
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), however, said that there is no such possibility. If the banks were kept open, so would the market.
The regulator’s efforts to tame panic-driven investors done very little to clutch market fall, said the broker.
Two other indices also ended lower with the DSE 30 Index, comprising blue chips, eroded 38.90 points to finish at 2,024 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) plunged 16.05 points to close at 1,221.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, fell to below Tk 6.0 billion-mark after one month since February 24 and amounted to Tk 5.80 billion, which was 8.08 per cent lower over the previous day’s turnover of Tk 6.31 billion.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers, as out of 353 issues traded, 234 declined, 23 advanced and 96 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco - the flagship company of Beximco Group- was the most-traded stock with shares worth about Tk 741 million changing hands, followed by Beximco Pharma, Robi, LankaBangla Finance and newly listed NRB Commercial Bank.
Premier Leasing was the day’s top gainer, posting a gain of 8.47 per cent while recently listed eGeneration was the worst loser, losing 8.41 per cent.
A total number of 127,078 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 152.90 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE also plunged to Tk 4,635 billion on Wednesday, down from Tk 4,700 billion in the previous session.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended sharply lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –losing 247 points to settle at 15,424 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX shedding 149 points to close at 9,304.
Of the issues traded, 149 declined, 33 advanced and 41 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city’s bourse traded 46.04 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 1.77 billion.
