Stocks at a 41-month low

A sudden steep fall in the stock market index.

The DSEX, the key market average of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), came down to around 4,550 amid a free fall on Monday, and was remarked as a 39-month low.

However, it took only one trading session to push the index to a 41-month low on Tuesday.

This is similar to the pace of capital erosion of the investors who barely tend to surrender during adversity, and are frightened to lose it all now.

"The simplest interpretation of the scenario is that it took only one day to wipe out market gains over the two months in 2016," an equity analyst told The Business Standard.

The Tuesday trading 

Until close on Monday, the DSEX came down to 4,533, which ignited a sense of red alert. The stock exchange, market regulator and finance ministry then decided to hold meetings to find a way for revival.

The meetings had a fruitful outcome as all of them were in a consensus about the need to stop the market bleeding. 

On Tuesday, the market opened on an optimistic note, but it took less than half an hour for the majority of the traders to rush to get rid of some shares at least.

The market nosedive continued until the DSEX came close to the next psychological floor of 4,500 marks. 

Over the session, the broad index fell by 0.59 percent to close at 4.506.9 – year to date fall of 16.3 percent, surpassing a fall of over 13 percent in the previous year.

Turnover at the capital city bourse increased by 11 percent compared to that in the previous day. 

However, not all the sectors were facing the same situation, because banks, ceramics, tannery, jute, and travel and leisure stocks gained market capital though that was not enough to pull the market up.

At the DSE, 96 securities gained market cap, 203 lost, and 54 remained unchanged.