Stocks witnessed downward trend in early trading on Thursday with sluggish turnover as growing tension over the Covid-19 pandemic and floor price mechanism kept the investors almost stagnate.
Trading started at 10:00 am from today which will continue until 1:00 pm, instead of 10:30 am to 1:30 pm, as the bourses revised the trading time in line with the banks transaction hours due to rising cases of Covid-19 in the country.
Within 30 minutes of trading, DSEX lost more than 2.0 points while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city’s bourse fell more than 4.0 points at 11:00 am when the report was filed.
DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went down by 2.52 points or 0.06 per cent to stand 3,959 points at 11:00 am.
The DSE core index is hovering between 3,950 and 3,970 points in the past 12 sessions as most of the sellers find almost no buyers amid growing tension over the Covid-19 pandemic and floor price mechanism.
Meanwhile, the securities regulator is likely to withdraw the floor price mechanism soon in a bid to ensure free price movements of stocks.
Two other indices also saw downturn till then. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 1.12 points to reach at 1,324 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 0.33 points to stand at 918 points till then.
Turnover, the important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 125 million on DSE when the report was filed at 11:00 am.
Market analysts said the worsening pandemic situation has made the market almost buyer-less in recent days as the outbreak is going to put a long-lasting adverse impact on the country’s economy.
Beximco was the most traded stocks till then with shares worth Tk 13 million changing hands, closely followed by Linde BD, Exim Bank, Silva Pharma and IFIC Bank.
The port city’s bourse – the Chittagong Stock Exchange – (CSE) saw a downward trend till then with CSE All Share Price Index- CASPI-losing 4.37 points to stand at 11,254 points, also at 11:00am.
The Selective Category Index – CSCX – also fell 2.72 points to stand at 6,819 points till then.
Of the issues traded till then, 1 advanced, 7 declined and 12 issues remained unchanged with Tk 2.0 million in turnover.
