Stocks slump at opening as Robi shares plunge

Stock price of Robi Axiata tumbled 10 per cent at opening on Tuesday, the first trading day after the removal of its floor price, as investors dumped their holdings to safeguard their investment from further erosion.

After remaining on the floor for more than 18 months, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission lifted the floor restriction from the second largest telecom operator on Tuesday as per the directive issued on February 6.

Right from the start of the trading session, Robi stock saw massive selloffs as investors wanted to get rid of their holdings that had remained stuck on the floor for a long period of time.

Robi, the fifth most valued stock in terms of market capitalization. Robi’s price erosion alone accounted for more than 16 points fall in the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange until filing the report at 11:00am.

Accordingly, the key index of the prime of the DSE went down by 46 points or 0.79 per cent to a more than three-year low of 5,852 after the first one and a half hours of trading at 11:00am.

Turnover also stood at Tk 2.05 billion after the first one and a half hours of trading.

Of the issues traded till then, 101 advanced, 225 declined and 59 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

The newly listed Asiatic Laboratories was the most-traded stocks till then, with shares worth Tk 298 million changing, followed by Renata, Central Pharma, Fu-Wang Ceramic and Golden Son.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) opened lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 79 points to 16850, also at 11:00am.

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