The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed Monday a dip in stock prices in the opening hour and then a reverse trend following demonstration by a group of unnerved investors.
A downbeat mood prevailed from the very outset of the day's transactions, as the investors remained apprehensive of intervention by the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) authorities like that of the previous day when it (DSE) halted trading of four companies for their unusual price movement.
This dragged the benchmark DSE General Index (DGEN) down by 34 points at the end of the first hour's trade.
But the market started to bounce back on speculation that the securities regulator might direct the bourses not to intervene for the time being, market sources said.
The market also gained on the ground that the investors found prices of most issues lucrative.
Finally, all the market barometers - DGEN, All Shares Price Index (DSI) and DSE-20 Index - gained 20.53 points, 16.25 points and 2.42 points to close at 3040.79, 2579.61 and 2537.60 respectively.
Being frustrated by persistent decline in stock prices, the investors gathered in front of the DSE building at 11:00 am, and tried to bring out procession, but the law-enforcing agencies brought the situation under control, witnesses said.
The demonstration lasted for more than 30 minutes, halting the traffic movement for a while at the commercial hub, Motijheel. However, the demonstrators rushed to the brokerage houses hearing that the market was rising again, they added.
Last year, the frustrated DSE-investors staged similar demonstration twice. They staged demonstration on December 3 when the DGEN dipped 80 points due to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'s imposition of restriction on loan facilities offered by the merchant banks to their clients in order to cool down the over heated market. Then SEC withdrew the restriction on trading in the face of protest.
On November 22 last year, the investors also took to the street in a similar situation.
On Monday, the total market turnover, however, maintained its declining trend. The turnover was Tk 2.42 billion against the previous day's Tk 2.49 billion. The gainers outnumbered the losers, as out of 227 issues traded, 129 gained, 87 declined and 11 remained unchanged. The market capitalisation, however, rose to Tk 875.10 billion against Tk 870.69 billion.
Share prices of AIMS First Mutual Fund posted a gain of 5.70 per cent to close at Tk 21.13 per share, making it the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 166.14 billion traded.
Bximco Pharma was the second top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 110.58 billion traded. Its share prices rose by 1.46 per cent to end at Tk 96.90 per share.
Square Pharma, Lanka Bangla Finance, Shahjalal Bank, Grameen One, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels Limited, Union Capital and NCC Bank were the other turnover leaders.
Share prices of Sonargaon Textiles had the biggest gain of 12.23 per cent, followed by IPDC 10.25 per cent, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels Limited 10.21 per cent, Mercantile Insurance 9.90 per cent, and Phoenix Insurance 7.98 per cent.
Purabi General Insurance, Standard Ceramic, Wata Chemical, Progressive Life insurance and Northern Jute were the top losers on the day.
bdnews24.com adds: Market analysts cited the price correction as an artificial move.
"Price corrections should come naturally, not artificially. The bourse authorities are not getting to the root of the problems. They are making interventions, which is not good at all for the market," Yaweer Sayeed, CEO of AIMS of Bangladesh, said.
Rumour was at the heart of the problem.
"Strong surveillance and enforcement should be focused on brokerage houses, not on companies whose prices are going up," said Sayeed.
