A group of investors staged protests in front of the Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday as shares fell 1.67 percent.Investors under the banner of Share Market Investors Association demanded the government bring back normalcy to the market.They chanted slogans against Ahsanul Islam Titu, president of DSE, and M Khairul Hossain, chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission.
Demonstrations began at 12:45pm when the prime market index lost 40 points. DSEX, the benchmark general index of the DSE, finished the day at 3,882.33 points, after falling 66.11 points.
The government declared a stimulus package in November 2011 to stabilise the market, but it has not worked properly and failed to gain investors confidence, said Mizanur Rashid Chowdhury, president of Share Market Investors Association.
Bangladesh Bank also disbursed Tk 300 crore on August 27 under its Tk 900 crore refinance scheme to help the merchant banks and stockbrokers recover the losses in small investors’ portfolio, Chowdhury said.
“It has failed to have a positive impact in the market.” The institutional investors have remained inactive in the market. Investors went for selling shares and mutual fund units to bag profits ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, said Mohammed Rahmat Pasha, managing director of BRAC-EPL, a leading stockbrokerage.
It is natural for investors to go for bulk selling ahead of Eid, Pasha added. “Fears of a further decline in line with the index’s positioning below a psychological level of 4,000 points for the sixth consecutive session acted as a catalyst behind the selling pressure and forced the market to end negatively,” IDLC Investments said in its analysis.
In the meantime, investors continued to cash out their portfolios ahead of Eid, the merchant bank official said.Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, declined 6.83 percent to Tk 247 crore from the previous day.Of the 288 issues that traded on the DSE floor, 21 advanced, 239 declined and 22 remained unchanged.
A total of 0.66 lakh trades were executed with 6.29 crore shares and mutual fund units changing hands on the Dhaka bourse.Most major sector closed in the red: foods 0.9 percent, engineering 2.9 percent, textile 2.34 percent, cement 2.11 and non life insurance 2.09 percent.
Delta Life Insurance featured in the most traded stocks chart with 51,000 shares worth Tk 31.32 crore changing hands.Progressive Life Insurance was the biggest gainer of the day, gaining 9.96 percent, while Deshbandhu Polymer was the worst loser, plunging 15.51 percent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange also declined on the day with its selective category index, CSCX, dropping 137.26 points, to close at 7,584.45 points.
Losers beat gainers 188 to 15, with nine issues unchanged on the port city bourse that traded 60.55 lakh shares and mutual fund units with a turnover of Tk 17.81 crore.
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