Stocks continue to fall as coronavirus fear spreads

Dhaka (Nov 23, 2020): Dhaka stocks landed in the red zone on Monday, extending losing streak for the third straight session.

The benchmark index, DSEX, opened sharply lower in the morning, losing almost 60 points, but started to recover from the midday, offsetting more than half of the losses on buying insurance stocks before the closure of trade.

At the end of the day, the DSEX shed around 23 points or 0.5 percent to 4,817. The index hit intraday high of 4,826 and intraday low of 4,780.

The market succumbed to the pressure coming in the wake of news of increasing coronavirus cases in Bangladesh and worldwide. Talk of a likely lockdown to be imposed in the country might weigh on investors’ sentiment, according to brokers.

Among other indices, DSES Index was down 13 points or 1.16 percent to 1,107 and blue chip DS30 Index rose 15 points or 1 percent to 1,670.

Insurance stocks showed impressive rise of 6.7 percent after they reported relatively positive earnings. Mutual Funds bounced back after the fall of some sessions, gaining 2.3 percent. Among other sectors, engineering, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication sectors faced price correction.

The volume of trade in value stood at Tk 621 crore, up by more than 25 percent over the previous session. General insurance accounted for 34 percent of the total turnover alone.

Drug giants Beximco Pharmaceuticals and Square Pharmaceuticals topped the turnover list along with several general insurance companies.

Out of the 344 issues traded, 134 declined, 124 advanced while the value of 86 stocks remained unchanged.

 Analysts expect volatility might persist in the stock markets in the near term as investors assess the impact of the coronavirus-induced lockdown on the economy worldwide.