Stocks plunged on Thursday mainly due to panic sell-offs, with turnover hitting one-month low, as the ongoing quota reform protests took a bloody turn across the country, denting investor confidence.
The presence of investors on the trading floor was thin and many investors failed to reach the brokerage houses due to the "complete shutdown" enforced by quota reform protesters.
Subsequently, the daily turnover hit one-month low to Tk 3.72 billion, 34 per cent lower than the previous day.
The market opened sharply lower on Thursday with sellers dominating the trading floor.
The DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), finally went down more than 36 points or 0.66 per cent to 5,447. The prime index lost more than 38 points in the past two trading sessions.
"Investor sentiment took a heavy blow following the prevailing unrest on the streets centering student movement, impeding the market's recovery from its prolonged depressed state," said EBL Securities.
Uncertainties centring on the student movement have dampened the stock market sentiment, said Md Saiful Islam, president of the DSE Brokers Association of Bangladesh.
Investors were worried about the law and order situation of the country, which led to lower turnover, he said.
A section of investors also became cautious ahead of the monetary policy statement (MPS) for the first half of the current financial year.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Thursday unveiled its monetary policy for July-December 2024, keeping the policy rate unchanged at 8.50 per cent to control inflation.
The central bank also kept the crawling peg mid-rate unchanged at Tk 117 per US dollar for the first half of the current fiscal year as the foreign currency market is showing reasonable stability.
Price erosion of LafargeHolcim, Beximco Pharma, Robi, Best Holdings, and beacon Pharma mainly dragged the market. They jointly accounted for almost one-third of the day's index fall.
LafargeHolcim's stock plunged 2.9 per cent, accounting for 3.5 point index fall alone. The cement maker earlier reported a 53 per cent decline in profit for April-June quarter this year to Tk 804 million.
Beximco Pharma also slid 1.6 per cent dragging the index by 2.7 points.
The blue chip index DS30, a group of 30 prominent companies, also fell more than 8 points to 1,953 while the DSES Index, which represents Shariah-based companies, dropped 10 points to 1,191.
The pharmaceutical sector kept its dominance on the turnover chart, capturing 25 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by the banking and food sectors.
More than 78 per cent traded stocks saw price correction as out of 395 issues traded 311 saw price fall, 38 closed higher and 46 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Most sectors witnessed correction, with the paper & printing enduring the highest erosion of 2.6 per cent, followed by cement, tannery and non-bank financial institutions.
Sea Pearl Beach Resorts, which lost 2.94 per cent, became the most-traded stock with shares worth Tk 159 million changing hands, followed by Grameenphone, Orion Infusion, and Agni System.
The newly-listed Techno Drug was the day's top gainer, posting a 9.71 per cent rise while Bangladesh Thai Aluminum was the worst loser, shedding 3 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI) losing more than 50 points to 15,567 and the Selective Categories Index (CSCX) shedding almost 30 points to 9371.
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