DSE free fall continues

FE Report Dhaka stocks experienced yet another drastic fall Tuesday, the third straight session of the week, and DGEN plunged more than four per cent, as panic gripped the investors. On Monday, the DSE witnessed sharp decline and DGEN came down to nearly two-year low to dive below 5,000 points strong psychological support level due mainly to panic sale by the investors and the sell-off continued Tuesday. The market opened with a positive note and showed a brief uptrend and gained more than 30 points within the initial 20 minutes. After that it witnessed a drastic decline and continued to slip steadily throughout the session and finally ended 228 points lower. The benchmark General Index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DGEN), the main gauge of the market, slipped 228.20 points or 4.67 per cent to close at 4,649.32 since January 10, 2010. On January 10, 2010, the DGEN was 4,643.39. The broader DSE All Shares Price Index (DSI) plummeted 189.54 points or 4.64 per cent to close at 3,889.33. The DSE-20 blue-chip index also went down by 142.66 points or 3.83 per cent to close at 3,575.95. The DSE General Index lost more than 559 points or 11 per cent in just last three trading sessions. "The investors are feeling more insecure to stay in the extreme volatile market and they went for aggressive sale, as a result, the market witnessed sharp decline," commented a stock broker. On the other hand, the institutions forced many investors to sell their shares, bought with margin loan facility, which contributed to the sharp fall of the market, he added. Total turnover value decline further and stood at Tk 2.52 billion in value term, down by 21.4 per cent compared to Tk 3.21 billion in the previous session. A total of 40.81 million shares changed hands on the day against 51.69 million in the previous session. The trade deals also declined to 91,905 against Monday's 107, 849. Total market capitalisation of the DSE declined to Tk 2,373.68 billion against Tk 2,464.70 billion in the previous session. All sectors ended in the red as sell pressure witnessed all across the board. Among the major sectors---NBFIs and telecommunications were suffered the most and lost 6.68 per cent and 5.39 per cent respectively. Banking, pharmaceuticals and fuel and power sectors declined 3.76 per cent, 4.58 per cent and 3.98 per cent respectively. Grameenphone Ltd topped the turnover list with shares worth Tk 118.46 million changed hands. The other turnover leaders were Beximco Limited, Fu-Wang Ceramics, National Bank, Titas Gas, SIBL, UCBL, MI Cement, Mercantile Bank and Square Pharma. There were only eight issues gained on the day and Fu-Wang Ceramics was the day's highest gainer posting a rise of 5.84 per cent. It was followed by IBBL Mudaraba Perpetual Bond, ACI Zero Coupon Bond, Standard Insurance, Usmania Glass, Bata Shoe, Heidelberg Cement and BOC Bangladesh. The day's worst lowers included Eastern Lubricant, Dulamia Cotton, GQ Ball Pen, Uttara Finance, Quasem Drycells, Aftab Auto, Malek Spinning, Beach Hatchery, RN Spinning and Metro Spinning.