Many stocks find no buyers as DSE dives

Mohammad Mufazzal Trading at the Dhaka Stock Exchange was unusually thin Tuesday amid a free-fall in the panic-stricken market. Many securities found no buyers in the penultimate hour of the day's trading session. The DSE website showed there were no buyers for Kohinoor Chemicals, Monno Jutex, Northern Jute Manufacturing, Samorita Hospital, Stylecraft, ICB and Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) at 1.47pm on Tuesday. Shares in 259 companies were traded but "most of them found no significant response from the buyers" said a top broker. "The market almost froze during the later half of the session." According to the DSE, among the companies about 25 found less than ten sellers. And the ratio of buyers against these sellers was one to four. With the market in a tailspin, response from the sellers' end was also very insignificant from 1.0 pm to 2.0 pm, the penultimate hour of trading, the broker said. "It is a sign of deep malaise in the market." Shareholders of many companies told the FE that they could not find buyers for their shares, owing to unremitting decline in the market. At one stage, there were only two sellers and no buyer for Kohinoor Chemicals, one seller and two buyers for LR Global Mutual Fund One, six sellers and three buyers for Meghna Pet Industries. And there was one seller and no buyer for Northern Jute Manufacturing, five sellers and one buyer for Rahim Textile, which was one of the best performers last year, and two sellers and one buyer for Monno Stafflers. Some buyers, however, went on a bargain hunt at the fag end of the session, halting the slide that started right after the opening.