Stocks plunge at opening with low turnover

Stocks opened lower on Thursday amid thin participation of investors as jittery investors dumped holdings to avoid further erosion of their investment.

The latest policy rate hike and heating up political environment coupled with lower than expected earnings disclourses most of the companies' dampened investors sentiment, market analysts said.

Following the previpus day's sharp fall, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 40 points or  0.77 per cent to 5,129 within the first hour of trading at 11:00am, when the report was filed.

The blue-chip DS30 index, a group of 30 prominent companies, also lost 15 points to 1877 and the DSES index, which represents Shariah-based companies, shed 13 points to 1,1 49 till then.

Turnover, another important indicator of the market, reamined low and stood at Tk 883 million till then.

Of the issues traded till then, 77 advanced, 242 declined, and 59 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor till then.

Grameenphone was the most traded stock till then, with shares worth Tk 75 million changing hands.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange also saw a negative trend till then with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)—losing 94 points to stand at 14,407 while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX shed 59 points to reach 8,771 till then.

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