The Dhaka bourse witnessed yet another big fall on Thursday, with the key index sinking below 6,200-mark, as large-cap shares kept bleeding.
Stocks, such as Beacon Pharma, Beximco Pharma, Square Pharma, City Bank, and Bangladesh Submarine Cable saw major corrections.
These five stocks accounted for more than half of the losses on Thursday, while the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange slid more than 70 points to finish at 6,156, the lowest since August 2022.
The DSEX shed 120 points in the two sessions through Thursday.
As large stocks kept sliding, the market-cap of the DSE, calculated by multiplying the total number of outstanding shares with the current market price, eroded by Tk 355 billion in just five trading days, from its record high of Tk 7,884 billion.
Market experts said the market faced another blow as most investors wanted to get rid of their holdings that had been stuck on the floor for a long period of time.
Worried investors dumped their holdings, fearing a further price fall as remours spread on the trading floor that the securities regulator was going to withdraw floor price from the remaining 12 large-cap stocks.
However, till this evening, no such directive was issued and the 12 stocks, including heavyweight stocks like Grameenphone, Beximco, and Robi remained under the price restriction.
According to EBL Securities, stocks extended losses owing to investors' continuous pressure as they opted to safeguard their funds from the prevailing volatility in the market.
A section of investors preferred to keep a watchful eye on the upcoming corporate earnings declarations for the latest quarter, said the stockbroker.
On the other hand, panic-stricken investors sold-off major stocks.
Financial institutions took a big hit, losing 4.5 per cent, followed by power 3.3 per cent, textile 3 per cent, pharma 1.9 per cent, and banking 1.5 per cent.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, plummeted 26 per cent to Tk 8.71 billion from the previous day.
A majority of the stocks saw price erosion, as out of the 389 issues traded, 282 declined, 85 advanced and 22 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The DS30 Index, which consists of blue chips, went down more than 24 points to 2,114 while the DSES index, which represents Shariah-based companies, dropped 20 points to 1,352.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended sharply lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 259 points to 17552 while the Selective Categories Index (CSCX) shed 154 points to close at 10510.
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