Stock market slide continues

Dhaka stocks fell over 56 points to close the day at 6,799 on Monday as investors are concerned about surging oil prices and its consequences on the local economy.

Continued economic worries and quarterly earnings have resulted in further woes for the investors, market insiders say.

DSEX, the benchmark index, fell by 544 points or 7.40 percent between October 7 and November 8.

The shariah-based index, DSES, dropped by nearly 7 points to 1,437 and the blue-chip DS30 index fell by 15 points to 2,583 on Monday.

Turnover, another indicator of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, is also on a declining trend as Tk 1,073 crore worth of shares were traded, down from Tk 1,145 crore a day before.

Of the shares of 376 companies traded on the day, 295 or 78.46 percent saw a fall in prices, 55 or 14.63 percent witnessed an increase, and 26 or 6.91 percent remained unchanged.

Trading in the stock market began on Monday with the shares and units of most companies declining. However, the fall in the index is lessened by the increase in the share price of most of the large-capital companies. In the first half an hour, the key index of DSE decreased by 6 points.

As the share price of most of the large-capital companies continued to rise, at one stage the share prices of most of the companies in all sectors continued to rise. So, the DSEX increased by 30 points before the end of the first two hours of trading.

But in the last two hours of the transaction, the prices of one after another company kept falling. As a result, the stock market plunged.

After a down of 50 points on the previous day, the index fell by 56 points on Monday. At one stage, the index fell by 70 points. But it recovered a little due to some last-minute adjustment.

At the end of the day, the index stood at 6,799 points. The position is the lowest since August 19 when it was 6,760 points.

With the Monday’s fall, the index saw a plunge in six out of the last seven working days. The index rose by only 8 points on Thursday.

The British American Tobacco Company, which had prevented a bigger fall the day before, had played a major role in the fall of the index on Monday.

In addition, state-owned investment institution ICB, Beximco Pharma, United Power, Robi, NRBC, Beximco Limited, Powergrid, National Life Insurance and Pubali Bank were also instrumental in pulling the index down. Due to these 10 companies, the index fell by 27.86 points.

On the other hand, Beacon Pharma, Orion Pharma, Grameenphone, Shahjalal Islami Bank, Genex Infosys, LafargeHolcim Cement, EBL, Unilever, Golden Sons and BRAC Bank added a few points to the index. These 10 companies contributed 9.9 points to the index.

Shares of Beximco were the most-traded on the DSE on Monday followed by Genex Infosys, NRBC Bank, Orion Pharmaceuticals, IFIC Bank, Alif Manufacturing Company, Beximco Pharma, BATBC, LafargeHolcim and Malek Spinning.

Meanwhile, CASPI, the overall index of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), decreased by 210.03 points to 19,868.05 points and securities worth Tk 34.76 crore were traded on the day.