Investors agitate as stocks continue to plummet
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
FE Report
Investors staged a protest outside the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) Monday as Dhaka stocks plunged on continuous selling pressure amid volatile share trading seen in the market over the last three weeks.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will sit today (Tuesday) with merchant bankers to find ways to tackle the current falling trend of the market.
Being frustrated at fall of the benchmark index that lost 134.67 points in the last consecutive four days, a group of investors left the trading chamber after the benchmark index started to dive 30 minutes after the opening.
They gathered in front of the DSE building at about 12:30 pm and their demonstration lasted for about 10 minutes, a witness said. Before arrival of law enforcing agency personnel in the spot, the investors dispersed, he added.
On the day, all the market barometers -- the benchmark DSE General Index (DGEN), All Shares Price Index (DSI) and DSE-20 comprising blue chip -- shed 50.86 points, 42.75 points and 41.08 points to close at 2633.82, 2185.45 and 2267.92 respectively.
Prices of most of the shares dropped on the day. Out of 231 issues traded, 202 declined, 21 advanced and eight remained unchanged.
The prime bourse, however, opened with a positive note, pushing the key index up nearly 40 points in first hour of the trade. Later, it started to shed points because of selling pressure from the investors.
"This is the consequence of intra-day volatility in share trading in the last few days," a market expert said adding, " We see that whenever indexes rise slightly, investors begin selling because they are afraid of the drop."
Share prices of debutant Takaful Insurance Limited, the day's top gainer, posted a rise of 236.50 per cent to Tk 336.50 a share, making it seventh turnover leader with shares worth Tk 56.74 million changing hands. Its face value is Tk 100.
The day's total turnover came down to Tk 2.28 billion from the previous day's Tk 2.49 billion while the market capitalisation also declined to Tk 952.83 billion from Tk 966.97 billion of previous trading day.
Beximco Pharma was the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 333.92 million traded.
Other turnover leaders on the day were Beximco Limited, ACI Limited, Titas Gas, Lankabangla Finance, Square Pharma, Uttara Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited and Summit Alliance Port Limited.
Tallu Spinning, the second top gainer, gained 6.51 per cent, followed by Ibna Sina 6.19 per cent, Rahima Food 4.84 per cent and Modern Dyeing 3.57 per cent.
Monno Ceramic, Kay and Quye, Glaxo SmithKline, Beximco Limited and Agrani Insurance were the top losers on the day.
Meanwhile, the DSE has asked the investors not to sell shares being unnecessarily panicked amid the current downward trend of the market as the country's economic indicators are in good health.
"Please, don't pay heed to any rumours. Invest in securities with strong fundamentals. We expect that the market will rebound as economic indicators and corporate declarations are in a favourable position,' said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salahuddin Ahmed Khan at a press briefing Monday.
The briefing was hurriedly called by the DSE after a group of retail investors staged demonstration in front of the bourse's building, being unnerved by the continuous fall in share prices over the last three weeks.
Citing the Bangladesh Bank report released recently, Khan said, " The country's economy functioned well in the first quarter of the current fiscal as the private sector and firm credit increased significantly compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal."
"Recently, retail investors have become worried over the falling market, apprehending that the market would slip further," he said adding, " but it is their misconception as economic indicators are in good health and moreover the share market as well as the economy has largely been insulated against the global economic turmoil."
"The problem is psychological. However, share markets across the globe also showed signs of recovery since last week," he said.
Mentioning the buying of shares by one of the biggest investment banks in the falling market, he said this is a positive signal for the market as participation of institutional investors will surely turn the current situation into a good one. 'But a number of leading merchant banks are still in the selling side mainly due to their statutory restriction.'
The state-owned Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) bought shares worth Tk 2.50 billion and sold shares worth Tk 150 million last week, sources said.
Referring to a recent report of Goldman Sachs, the DSE CEO said Bangladesh is the second best investment destination now, as the country remains unscathed amid the global financial crisis that hit the biggest financial markets across the world.
He said DSE had made a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission to amend the merchant banking rules to allow the merchant banks to form joint portfolio with their clients.
"If introduced, the process will push the merchant banks to be more careful in injecting funds to the stock market," he said.
A total of 60 listed companies declared dividend recently. Of them, 25 raised their dividend level from that of the previous year, while 25 maintained almost the same rates and rest of the companies announced dividend at decreased rates, he said.
DSE Chief Operating Officer AFM Shariful Islam and Chief Financial Officer Satipati Moitra were present at the press briefing.
Investors staged a protest outside the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) Monday as Dhaka stocks plunged on continuous selling pressure amid volatile share trading seen in the market over the last three weeks.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will sit today (Tuesday) with merchant bankers to find ways to tackle the current falling trend of the market.
Being frustrated at fall of the benchmark index that lost 134.67 points in the last consecutive four days, a group of investors left the trading chamber after the benchmark index started to dive 30 minutes after the opening.
They gathered in front of the DSE building at about 12:30 pm and their demonstration lasted for about 10 minutes, a witness said. Before arrival of law enforcing agency personnel in the spot, the investors dispersed, he added.
On the day, all the market barometers -- the benchmark DSE General Index (DGEN), All Shares Price Index (DSI) and DSE-20 comprising blue chip -- shed 50.86 points, 42.75 points and 41.08 points to close at 2633.82, 2185.45 and 2267.92 respectively.
Prices of most of the shares dropped on the day. Out of 231 issues traded, 202 declined, 21 advanced and eight remained unchanged.
The prime bourse, however, opened with a positive note, pushing the key index up nearly 40 points in first hour of the trade. Later, it started to shed points because of selling pressure from the investors.
"This is the consequence of intra-day volatility in share trading in the last few days," a market expert said adding, " We see that whenever indexes rise slightly, investors begin selling because they are afraid of the drop."
Share prices of debutant Takaful Insurance Limited, the day's top gainer, posted a rise of 236.50 per cent to Tk 336.50 a share, making it seventh turnover leader with shares worth Tk 56.74 million changing hands. Its face value is Tk 100.
The day's total turnover came down to Tk 2.28 billion from the previous day's Tk 2.49 billion while the market capitalisation also declined to Tk 952.83 billion from Tk 966.97 billion of previous trading day.
Beximco Pharma was the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 333.92 million traded.
Other turnover leaders on the day were Beximco Limited, ACI Limited, Titas Gas, Lankabangla Finance, Square Pharma, Uttara Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited and Summit Alliance Port Limited.
Tallu Spinning, the second top gainer, gained 6.51 per cent, followed by Ibna Sina 6.19 per cent, Rahima Food 4.84 per cent and Modern Dyeing 3.57 per cent.
Monno Ceramic, Kay and Quye, Glaxo SmithKline, Beximco Limited and Agrani Insurance were the top losers on the day.
Meanwhile, the DSE has asked the investors not to sell shares being unnecessarily panicked amid the current downward trend of the market as the country's economic indicators are in good health.
"Please, don't pay heed to any rumours. Invest in securities with strong fundamentals. We expect that the market will rebound as economic indicators and corporate declarations are in a favourable position,' said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salahuddin Ahmed Khan at a press briefing Monday.
The briefing was hurriedly called by the DSE after a group of retail investors staged demonstration in front of the bourse's building, being unnerved by the continuous fall in share prices over the last three weeks.
Citing the Bangladesh Bank report released recently, Khan said, " The country's economy functioned well in the first quarter of the current fiscal as the private sector and firm credit increased significantly compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal."
"Recently, retail investors have become worried over the falling market, apprehending that the market would slip further," he said adding, " but it is their misconception as economic indicators are in good health and moreover the share market as well as the economy has largely been insulated against the global economic turmoil."
"The problem is psychological. However, share markets across the globe also showed signs of recovery since last week," he said.
Mentioning the buying of shares by one of the biggest investment banks in the falling market, he said this is a positive signal for the market as participation of institutional investors will surely turn the current situation into a good one. 'But a number of leading merchant banks are still in the selling side mainly due to their statutory restriction.'
The state-owned Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) bought shares worth Tk 2.50 billion and sold shares worth Tk 150 million last week, sources said.
Referring to a recent report of Goldman Sachs, the DSE CEO said Bangladesh is the second best investment destination now, as the country remains unscathed amid the global financial crisis that hit the biggest financial markets across the world.
He said DSE had made a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission to amend the merchant banking rules to allow the merchant banks to form joint portfolio with their clients.
"If introduced, the process will push the merchant banks to be more careful in injecting funds to the stock market," he said.
A total of 60 listed companies declared dividend recently. Of them, 25 raised their dividend level from that of the previous year, while 25 maintained almost the same rates and rest of the companies announced dividend at decreased rates, he said.
DSE Chief Operating Officer AFM Shariful Islam and Chief Financial Officer Satipati Moitra were present at the press briefing.