Stocks slip amid cautious trading after floor reimposition

Dhaka bourse indices inched down on the last trading session of the week as cautious investors took a "wait and see" approach and mostly remained on the sidelines after the securities regulator reinstated the price floor for 169 scrips. 

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) announced its decision on Wednesday, and on the very next day, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed lower investor participation. 

DSEX, the benchmark index of the DSE, slipped by 0.02% in a day to 6,214 points, while the Shariah index DSES fell by 0.03% and blue-chip index DS30 by 0.09% to reach 1,357 and 2,216, respectively.

The daily turnover also declined by 5.5% to Tk427.7 crore on Thursday, compared to the previous trading session. 

Roughly, during the first 20 minutes of the trading session, the DSEX went up over 6,220, but then kept on falling till 12:30pm because of investors' selling pressure, and finally, it closed just below 6,215. 

According to market insiders, most of the stocks got stuck at floor prices, which is why they had no buyers. 

On Thursday, 280 out of 399 scrips had no buyers, an increase from 261 scrips in the previous session. 

And, the share price of 72 scrips advanced, 88 declined, and 149 remained unchanged on the day. 

According to the daily market commentary of EBL Securities, the DSEX has been falling for the last two consecutive sessions as the BSEC's assurance of not withdrawing floor prices for the scrips, other than those 169 ones, failed to do the trick in taming the profit-booking tendency of investors.

Investors continued to book profits and rebalance their portfolios.

However, opportunist investors continued their chase for sector-specific scrips with anticipation of quick gains since they expect positive momentum in the market as the floor price is likely to be intact for the foreseeable future, the market commentary added. 

On the sectoral front, IT issues exerted the highest turnover, followed by life insurance, and food stocks.

Of all the sectors, IT, life insurance, and paper exhibited the highest positive returns, while general insurance, jute, and travel faced the highest corrections.