An upset investor watching a trading screen at a brokerage house in the city on Monday as the equities indices saw biggest single-day fall amid coronavirus fears — FE photo by Shafiqul Alam Dhaka stocks suffered a deeper slump on Monday, as frightened investors dumped their holdings after the confirmation of three first cases of coronavirus in the country.
The key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, lost its value by 6.52 per cent shedding around 279.32 points, the biggest since its introduction in 2013. The index closed at 4,008.05 points.
The top 10 gainers' chart looked almost empty as only two listed securities closed in the green, one remained unchanged and the remaining 352 declined.
The heavyweights experienced the maximum erosion in their prices on the day.
Markets in India, China, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong also nosedived in the aftermath of the deadly virus, known as Covid-19, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.
The DSEX witnessed sharp correction in three previous consecutive sessions and lost 178.69 points.
On Sunday, the government's disease control agency advised people to avoid large crowd, public transport with many people staying home as precautionary measures.
The government also cancelled the opening ceremony of Bangabandhu's birth centenary celebration.
Market operators said investors' traffic in city brokerage houses was thin, compared to other days.
Sayadur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association, or BMBA, said the confirmation of pneumonia-like disease triggered panic among investors, who watched the drop-off in markets across the world.
"The indices of stock markets across the world plummeted. And that has been reflected in our market as well," Mr. Rahman said.
The SENSEX (India) declined 4.92 per cent, NIKKI 225 (Japan) 5.07 per cent, FTSE 100 (UK) 7.14 per cent, STI (Singapore) 6.03 per cent, Hang Seng (Hong Kong) 4.23 per cent and SZSE Comp (China) 4.09 per cent.
The Dhaka bourse's opening was depressing as the DSEX lost 120 points within the first nine minutes.
A momentary recovery was observed only to fade within ten minutes and the DSEX witnessed another loss of 90 points.
The broad index showed an upward trend that sustained for 23 minutes.
Afterwards, the DSEX was in the red until its closure. The Shariah-based index DSES declined 6.98 per cent or 69.79 points to close at 929.27 points.
The DS30 index comprising blue chips closed at 1,346.11 points dropping by 6.19 per cent.
However, the turnover on the prime bourse managed to stay higher amounting to Tk 4.99 billion, which was 16.41 per cent higher than that of the previous session.
Square Pharmaceuticals topped the turnover chart with a value of Tk 156 million, followed by Grameenphone Tk 135 million, LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Tk 118 million, Summit Power Tk 104 million and Sea Pearl Beach Resort Tk 102 million.
The share prices of top 10 losers witnessed a plunge of 10 per cent, while those of another 115 securities declined ranging from 9.0 per cent to 9.99 per cent.
A total of 85 securities lost prices ranging between 5.0 per cent and 8.99 per cent, while the remaining 67 securities witnessed price correction ranging between 0.43 per cent and 4.94 per cent on the DSE.
Md. Saifuddin, managing director of IDLC Securities, said panic after confirmation of the coronavirus cases drove down the market.
"The confirmation of three cases in Bangladesh has triggered the panic among investors. The market fall is just the reflection of it," Mr. Saifuddin said.
Golam Rabbani Hamid, a general manager at Modern Securities, said apart from panic, the market saw free fall due to the absence of any supportive measure.
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