Trading to continue as usual during pandemic: BSEC

The market bounced back on Monday, after suffering a big fall in the past three days, as bargain hunters showed their buying spree on sector-wise lucrative stocks.
Market analysts said the market recovered some losses after investors were convinced that the government will not impose any lockdowns even after fresh rising trends of coronavirus cases in the country.
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) issued a statement on Monday saying the share trading will continue as usual amid Covid-19 pandemic and urged the investors not to pay heed to any market closure rumour.
"Share trading will continue as usual at any situation, including the Covid-19 pandemic, as long as banking activities remain operational," said the BSEC statement.
The BSEC issued the statement considering the interest of the investors.
The statement was issued following the rumour that the trading might be shut again once the government imposes lockdown in the wake of fresh rising trends of Covid-19 infections and deaths in the recent days.
After enhancing the dividend limit for banks, the central bank has also decided to allow listed non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) to declare up to 30 per cent dividend, up from the previous 15 per cent, which also attracted investors, said a top broker.
The securities regulator's statement on continuation of the trading activities despite rising Covid-19 cases boosted the investors' confidence, commented EBL Securities.
However, investors worry remained as the number of death and infection rate kept rising, said the stockbroker.
The market opened on a sharp decline in the morning and the core index dipping below 5,300-mark, losing about 60 points within the first hour of trading. But, the rest of the session went up steadily amid investors' buying spree on lucrative stocks.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 62.41 points or 1.16 per cent to settle at 5,412, after eroding 183 points in the past three days.
Meanwhile, unlike every debutant in recent trend, the NRB Commercial Bank failed to attract much investor on its first day trading despite its profit after tax jumped 539 per cent year-on-year to Tk 1,406.42 million in January-September, 2020.
The bank's share traded between Tk 11.90 and Tk 15, before closing at Tk 13.20 each, gaining 32 per cent from its offer price of Tk 10. However, its upper limit circuit breaker was 50 per cent as a debutant.
The NRBC Bank was the third most traded stock with 32.29 million shares worth Tk 428.55 million changing hands on the DSE.
Two other indices also ended higher with the DSE 30 Index, comprising blue chips, gained 32.28 points to finish at 2,066 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) rose 9.46 points to close at 1,235.
Top positive index contributors were Walton, Robi, BATBC, Grameenphone, Berger Paints and Summit Power, according to data from amarstock.com, a stock market data analyst.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, also rose to Tk 6.93 billion, which was 13 per cent higher over the previous day's turnover of Tk 6.15 billion.
Major sectors posted gain with food saw the highest return of 4.8 per cent, followed by engineering with 2.8 per cent and telecom 1.7 per cent.
Gainers took a strong lead over the losers, as out of 352 issues traded, 188 advanced, 56 declined and 108 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco - the flagship company of Beximco Group- was the most-traded stock with shares worth about Tk 764 million changing hands, followed by Premier Bank, NRBC Bank, Robi and Beximco Pharma.
Premier Bank was the day's top gainer, posting a gain of 9.52 per cent while GBB Power was the worst loser, losing 4.31 per cent.
A total number of 159,515 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 212.79 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE also rose to Tk 4,723 billion on Monday, up from Tk 4,646 billion in the previous session.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also rebounded with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -gaining 191 points to settle at 15,677 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX rising 115 points to close at 9,458.
Of the issues traded, 122 advanced, 49 declined and 46 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 16.15 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 326 million.

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