Dhaka stocks witnessed a plunge in the just ended financial year 2023-24, with the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange losing 16.00 per cent over the years over.
The main index DSEX ended at 5,328.40 points on June 30, the last trading session of FY24, losing a total of 1,015.68 points since July 2, 2023, the opening trading session of the financial year.
The key index of the Dhaka bourse opened with 6,344.08 points on the start of the past financial year.
The DSE also experienced a significant decrease in its market capitalisation, by Tk 1,09,922.16 crore, in the past financial year.
The total market capitalisation of the Dhaka bourse on June 2, 2023 was Tk 7,72,078.04 crore compared with that of Tk 6,62,155.88 crore on June 30, 2024.
The market capitalisation of the DSE includes the market value of all listed companies, bonds, treasury bonds and mutual funds.
Experts said that the country鈥檚 capital market faced a rough year due to various economic problems, including rising inflation, increasing external debts, a volatile foreign exchange market and decreasing foreign reserves.
Most investors were hesitant to make long-term investments and participate actively in the market because they lacked confidence in the market, they said.
Md Musa, a United International University professor, attributed the poor performance of the Dhaka stocks mostly to the fiscal management and monetary management.
鈥楤oth are poor in our country. But not just these issues, economic outlook of the country is also an influential factor as far as the investors鈥� decision making is concerned,鈥� he told 抖阴精品.
鈥楤ank interest rate is high; people think they can secure more profits from banks. Market sentiment is subdued as Inflation is rising, other economic indicators are volatile as well,鈥� he added.
According to EBL Securities weekly market updates, the average turnover in the first week of the past financial year was Tk聽1,088 crore, which decreased to Tk聽560 crore in the last week of the 2023-24 financial year.
Market operators were also disappointed with the performance and said that it was one of the worst years they had ever witnessed.
Md Sajedul Islam, managing director of Shyamol Equity Management Ltd, told 抖阴精品 that the main reason for this poor performance was poor policymaking.
鈥業n my 25-30 years in this market, I have never seen such a time,鈥� he said.
鈥楶eople are applying for new IPOs, which means they have money. But the secondary market is not getting investments, poor policy decisions by the government, regulatory commission and the stock exchanges are the reasons for the situation,鈥� added Sajedul.
Market operators also mentioned the devaluation of the taka against the US dollar, and the declining foreign investments in the market added to the depressed state of the market.
According to the data published by the Bangladesh Bank, the overall foreign investments in the market halved over the past two years.
Market operators also said that multiple other factors such as lack of investor confidence and lack of good performing companies in the market were working behind the bearish trend of stocks.
