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Stocks continued to bleed for the two straight sessions on Monday as investors kept their panic sell-offs to avoid further losses.
After losing roughly 143 points in the previous day, the market saw volatility in the first half of the day’s session but the market fell sharply in the late hours amid persistently lackluster trade.
DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 128.32 points or 2.33 per cent to settle at 5,376, which is more than five-week lowest since December 29, 2020.
The Bangladesh Bank on Sunday imposed a 30 per cent ceiling on banks’ dividend issuance to strengthen the entities’ capital base, making compliance with the rules mandatory from the year ended on December 31, 2020.
Bangladesh also rolled out the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive on Sunday, but there is no positive impact in the stock market.
Two other indices also saw massive corrections. The DSE 30 Index blue chips plunged 67.64 points to finish at 2,023 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) slumped 20.69 points to close at 1,214.
Market-cap of the DSE wiped out Tk 107 billion on Monday to Tk 4,583 billion, down from Tk 4,690 billion in the previous day.
Market analysts said the panicky investors continued to dump their holdings after noticing that some heavyweight issues, including mutational companies kept falling in the past few trading days.
“Investors dumped shares of Beximco Group, pharmaceuticals, engineering and telecom issues, putting pressure on the indices amid sluggish trading”.
Business conglomerate Beximco group largely contributed to the fall of indices further, said the analyst.
Heavyweight drug maker Beximco Pharmaceuticals share price crashed more than 9.0 per cent, Beximco more than 8.0 per cent and Shinepukur Ceramics 9.42 per cent. They are among top ten losers.
Beximco group companies also suffered losses in the previous day and featured in the top losers list.
All the sectors faced selling pressures, leading to the share price erosions of more than 67 per cent stocks. Out of 350 issues traded, 236 closed negative, 23 positive and 91 remained unchanged.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, remained below Tk 8.0 billion-mark and stood at Tk 7.89 billion, which was 2.33 per cent higher than the previous day’s Tk 7.71 billion.
Beximco, which lost more than 8.0 per cent, continued to dominate the turnover chart with 19.65 million shares worth Tk 1.40 billion changing hands, followed by Beximco Pharma, British American Tobacco, Robi and LankaBangla Finance.
Anlimayearn Dyeing was the day’s best performer, gaining 5.48 per cent while Prime Insurance was the day’s worst loser, shedding 10.66 per cent.
A total number of 149,881 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 211.54 million shares and mutual fund units.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also fell sharply with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –losing 396 points to settle at 15,519 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX shedding 239 points to close at 9,365.
Of the issues traded, 176 declined, 16 advanced and 36 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city’s bourse traded 12.59 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 381 million.