Stocks plunge amid Omicron fears

Indices of both the country's stock exchanges plunged on Sunday owing to a cautious selling approach by investors amid a rapid surge in coronavirus cases, triggered by the new variant of Omicron.

Following the selling pressure, the benchmark index DSEX of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) lost 54 points or 0.78% to close at 6,932, while the blue-chip index declined 0.92% to settle at 2,579 points.

Meanwhile, the port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange's All Share Price Index (CASPI) dropped 183 points to close at 20,311.

Officials at some top brokerage firms said investors were discussing possible lockdowns in the days to come following rapid surges in Covid-19 infections in the country.

Moreover, in this situation, many are selling shares on the assumption that the country's business sector may suffer again, they added.

Officials at other brokerage houses see the fall as a profit-taking attitude by investors. According to them, the stock market index has risen significantly in the last few days and many are now making a profit out of this.

EBL Securities said in its daily market review, the risk-averse investors went on a selling spree taking the equity indices in negative territory because share prices were at a lucrative level owing to the soaring market in recent sessions.

Meanwhile, investors' participation in the bourse decreased while the total turnover declined 13% and stood at Tk1,461 crore against Tk1,683 crore in the previous session.

Following the downtrend, 248 companies' share prices declined, while only 98 advanced and 32 remained unchanged at the DSE.

Heavyweight stocks, such as Beximco, Robi and British American Tobacco dragged down the index on Sunday. Besides, Fortune Shoe, Fareast Islami Life Insurance and Grameen Phone were trying to pull the index but it was not enough.

On the sectoral front, miscellaneous stocks were the most traded and they contributed 14% to the day's total turnover, followed by life insurance (12%) and pharmaceuticals (8%).

Except for the four sectors, all the sectors observed declining performance, out of which paper (3.2%), tannery (2.4%), ceramic (1.3%) and jute (0.8%) have exerted the most positive returns.

While services (-3.1%), travel (-2.4%), and textile (-1.7%) observed the most corrections on Sunday.

Khulna Printing topped the gainer list with a 10% increase, which was followed by Bashundhara Paper and Fareast Islami Life Insurance.

On the other hand, Shyampur Sugar Mills performed the worst, which lost 7%, followed by RSRM Steel (5.88%) and S Alam Cold Rolled (5.59%).