Dhaka stocks witnessed its key index hitting a fresh low in nearly three years for the third consecutive session on Thursday, as panic driven investors continued offloading shares to protect their funds amid ongoing downward trend on the trading floor, market operators said.
They said that the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission鈥檚 decision to impose circuit breaker limit negatively impacted the investors鈥� concerns amid the prolonged bearish vibe.
The BSEC on Wednesday restricted share price fall at maximum 3 per cent for all companies but those which are still under floor price restriction.
The regulatory body鈥檚 directive in this regard came into effect on Thursday.
According to the directive, share price of no company can fall below 3 per cent of the closing price of the previous session.
DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, decreased by 60.48 points, or 1.08 per cent, to close at 5,518.48points on Thursday after losing 54.63 points in the previous trading session.
The key index on Thursday posted its lowest after May 3, 2021, when it was at 5,511.36 points.
In the past three days, the DSE lost a total of 156.38 points.
Shyamol Equity Management Ltd managing director Md Sajedul Islam said that the directive to impose circuit breaker limit was unnecessary at this point.
鈥楾he market should run at its own pace. Interest rates in banks are high, inflation in the country is on the rise and liquidity crisis in the banks are already making investors shift their funds from the capital market. Amid many other economic worries in the country, this decision just added another concern to the investors鈥� mind,鈥� he said.
Senior official of another brokerage house said that any interventions caused harm to the market in the long run.
A group of small-scale investors staged protests in front of the old DSE building against the continued fall in share prices in the last couple of days.
In the past nine weeks, the Dhaka bourse witnessed decrease in the indices in a total of eight weeks, while gaining only in the one week before Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims, which was celebrated in the country on April 11.
Market operators said that multiple other factors were working behind the bearish trend of stocks, such as lack of investor confidence, forced selling pressures at the brokerage houses, economic woes in the country and global tensions in the upscale, liquidity crisis in banks and sudden change of policies.
The turnover on the DSE also witnessed a decrease, to Tk聽511.43 crore on Thursday compared with that of Tk 602.74 crore in the previous trading session.
Of the 396 issues traded on the day, 69 advanced, 300 declined and 27 remained unchanged.
Abdullah Al Mahmud, a director of the DSE, said DSE officials met with BSEC officials on Thursday to discuss the current market situation.
鈥榃e had a discussion with the BSEC regarding decision making on the market. We requested them to let us know beforehand taking any decision,鈥� he said.
鈥榃e also notified the BSEC about the accounts that we found linked with manipulation. They are taking actions against those accounts,鈥� he added.
On the sectoral front, pharmaceutical issues exerted the highest turnover, followed by food and IT stocks.
EBL Securities in its daily market commentary said, 鈥楽ellers remained predominant right from the start of Thursday鈥檚 session as they were wary of the market鈥檚 outlook, which led the majority of scrips to get stuck at the revised lower circuit without having sufficient buyers.鈥�
鈥楬owever, some opportunistic investors opted to take positions in particular beaten-down low capitalised scrips by the end of the session with a positive expectation of a potential short-term gain,鈥� it added.
The DSE Shariah index decreased by 12.29 points, or 1.00 per cent, to close at 1,217.27 points on Thursday.
The DS30 index lost 10.17 points, or 0.51 per cent, to finish at 1,974.50 points.
Orion Infusion topped the turnover chart on the day with its shares worth Tk聽31.69 crore changing hands.
Taufika Foods and Lovello Ice-cream, IT Consultants, Kohinoor Chemicals Company (Bangladesh), Asiatic Laboratories, Prime Finance First Mutual Fund, Malek Spinning Mills, Pharma Aids, Beach Hatchery and Best Holdings were the other turnover leaders.