A revolt by jawans of the paramilitary BDR at its headquarters in the city created panic among some investors at Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) Wednesday, dragging the shares down.
The market opened on a positive note but began to decline immediately after spread of the news of revolt at the DSE. The market also witnessed volatility during the whole trading session.
Analysts, however, saw Wednesday's market trend as quite normal.
The benchmark DSE General Index (DGEN) closed at 2581.11 with a slight drop of 30.82 points. The All Shares Price Index (DSI) ended at 2150.05 with a fall of 23.71 points and the DSE-20 blue chip index finished at 2102.04 with a drop of 30.82 points.
'The incident might make some investors concerned over the safety of their relatives trapped around the areas of the troubled spot, which affected the trade,' a stockbroker said adding that they also dumped the shares to protect their investments, pushing the indices down.
'The market could have fallen further but it showed mature behaviour even in the wake of such a fierce incident,' said Rakibur Rahman, a DSE director.
A fierce gunbattle broke out early in the morning inside the headquarters of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), the country's border security force, in the city's Peelkhana area.
'Though the market experienced volatility, the trading was normal,' said a capital market expert. Some investors dumped their shares being panicked by the incident, he added.
Out of a total of 259 issues traded, 83 gained, 169 declined and seven remained unchanged.
The day's total turnover came down to Tk 3.73 billion from the previous day's Tk 3.87 billion while the market capitalisation remained steady at Tk 1.00 trillion.
S Alam Cold Rolled Steels Limited was the turnover leader for the second consecutive day with its shares worth Tk 173.33 million traded.
The next other turnover leaders were Beximco Pharma, AIMS First Mutual Fund, Shinepukur Ceramics Limited, Golden Son, Titas Gas, Beximco,, BATBC, Summit Power and Eastern Housing Limited (EHL).
Among the day's top ten gainers, six came from the low performing Z-category, two from the B-category and two from the A-category.
The top gainers were Desh Garments, Meghna Shrimp, Rose Heaven Ball Pen, Excelsior Shoes, Safko Spinning, Metalex Corporation, First Lease International, Quasem Silk, Monno Ceramic and Beach Hatchery
The top losers were M Hossain Garments, Sonar Bangla Insurance, IDLC, BEMCO, Maq Paper, Tulip Dairy, Prime Insurance and BD Luggage.
The DSE management imposed a trade halt on Quasem Silk for the sake of market enquiry. On the other hand, the trade halt imposed during the last two days on Amam Sea Food, Rahima Food, Mona Food and Bionic Sea Food would continue until further instruction.
However, the All Share Price Index (CASPI) of Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) declined by 1.10 per cent to close at 7888.55 points Wednesday.
The CSE-30 Index also shed 1.58 per cent to close at 6422.47 points.
Dhaka stocks down as revolt panicks investors
FE Report | Published: February 26, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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