Economic Reporter :
Stock market is back to trading after a more than two-month general holiday amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Indices at both the stock exchanges were up on Sunday. Thanks to the gaining scrips while no securities has room to go below the level set by the floor pricing method imposed before the shutdown.
In the first session of reopening, the majority of the shares were stuck at the floor. Very few buyers came and picked some of the offered shares, said stockbrokers.
Among 354 regular scrips at the DSE, 195 had no changes in price at the end of session.
Trading was mainly concentrated among some sectoral shares like pharmaceuticals, telecom and energy, alongside some constituents of the blue chip and shariah-based indices.
Against gains of 60 securities at the DSE, 68 scrips lost price. The losers had some gains in previous sessions that offered those some room to fall, but of course not below the floor.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the broad-based benchmark at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), was up by 52 points or 1.3 percent to close at 4,060.
Blue-chip index DS30 gained 2.6 percent, while demand for Shariah-compliant securities pushed the DSES up by 3.36 percent.
However, investors’ low participation problem seems to have deepened as trading turnover at the DSE reduced more than 58 percent from the previous session-from Tk348 crore to Tk143 crore.
At the Chattogram Stock Exchange (CSE), broad-based index CSCX has gained 1.34 percent to close at 6952. Blue chip index CSE30 gained 3.45 percent followed by its Shariah index CSI with 2.88 percent gain.
The port city bourse also has had a lame turnover, Tk3.34 crore, on Sunday.
“It was poor trading indeed. We have got 323 among 354 scrips traded in the DSE. But, only 165 scrips made the list of companies that traded 10,000 shares over the three-hour session,” said a stockbroker. “As it was Sunday, foreign trade was a bit lower and fresh fund inflow was low,” he assumed.
He said, “Today’s trade was a reflection of portfolio rebalancing by investors so far. Selling some holding and buying some other stocks were expected to return better or minimise risk.”
