Stocks down at opening amid confidence crisis

Stocks opened lower in early trading on Monday, a day after margin gains, as jittery investors dumped their holdings to escape further losses, despite regulatory efforts to stablise the market.

Following a marginal gain in the previous day after nine days of market fall, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went down by more than 8 points, or 0.16 per cent to 4,987 after two hours of trading at 12:00 noon.

Market experts said the investors had been suffering from a severe confidence crisis for a long time amid a depressed market outlook.

Before the previous day’s marginal recovery, the prime index plunged 233 points in nine trading days.

The DS30 index, a group of 30 prominent companies, also shed 9 points to 1,843 while the DSES index, which represents Shariah-based companies, lost 3 points to 1,105 till then.

Turnover, another important indicator of the market, remained low and amounted to Tk 1.47 billion till then.

Of the issues traded till then, 164 declined, 153 advanced, and 73 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

Midland Bank was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 113 million changing hands.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) saw positive till then with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)— gaining 3 points to 13,864, while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX gained 6 points to 8,465.

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