DSE turnover falls below Tk200 crore mark
The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) turnover fell below the Tk200 crore mark on Monday owing to lower participation of investors due to lack of confidence amid economic uncertainty.
At the end of Monday's session, the total turnover of the DSE stood at Tk198.80 crore, which was Tk227.74 crore in the previous session.
Earlier, in 2020, the investors witnessed lower turnover caused due to Covid-19 restrictions.
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A senior official of a brokerage firm said that the share price of more than 300 companies in the DSE was at the floor price set by the stock market regulator. And because of this floor price, there is a buyer crisis in the market. Hence, daily trading fell to its lowest level in the last two and a half years.
Therefore, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) lifted the floor price of 169 companies' shares on 21 December in the face of market participants' demands. However, the price of these shares cannot fall by more than 1% per day. The turnover of the DSE has dropped further.
The official said, amid the current economic crisis, the regulator could not take any visible action to regain the confidence of investors. Rather, brokerage firms are now in the red due to a drop in turnover.
Investors' confidence weakened due to the depressing macroeconomic outlook and dismal earnings projections of the listed companies, EBL Securities said in its weekly market analysis.
Moreover, the regulator's decision to withdraw floor prices from certain issues put further strain on the ailing market, while the 1% lower circuit breaker has yet to attract investors' participation at the current prices, as they preferred to take a wait-and-see approach amidst the current scenario of the market, it said.
Besides, on Monday, the key index DSEX of the DSE also fell by 12 points to close at 6,189 and the blue-chip index DS30 plunged 3 points to 2,191.
Out of 239 companies' shares being traded, only 25 stocks increased, whereas 137 declined and 167 remained unchanged.
The newly listed firm Islami Commercial Insurance's shares were the top gainer with over 9% price hike on the day. Its shares closed at Tk21.2 at the end of the session. Monno Ceramics' shares were the worst as it has lost 7.88% price.
