Business Desk :
Stocks bounced back on Thursday amid choppy trading as bargain hunters went on late hours buying spree riding on the securities regulator’s latest effort to lower the downward circuit breaker again.
The market opened lower and the key index fell around 15 points within the first hour of trading, but late hours buying spree led by some institutional investors took the market index higher, ultimately ending over 50 points gain.
DSEX, the key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 50.33 points or 0.81 per cent to settle at 6,237, after losing 74 points in the past two days.
Two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, rose 19.40 points to finish at 2,307 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) gained 10.24 points to close at 1,373.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, however, remained low and total turnover stood at Tk 5.39 billion, which was 5.06 per cent higher than the previous day’s tally of Tk 5.13 billion.
Market operators said the regulatory efforts finally stop the losing streak, but most the general investors remained cautious amid confidence crisis as well as the persisting economic worries.
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission is taking one after another steps to stop the market fall and increase the fund flow in the ailing market, but the confidence of investors remained shaky, they said.
The securities regulator again set a 2.0-per cent circuit breaker at the lower end for prices of all listed securities to contain the ongoing free fall of stocks.
Earlier, the securities regulator has raised the margin-loan ratio to 1:1 while the government is set to extend the tenure as well as amount of the capital-market refinancing fund to help revamp the country’s ailing capital market.
Out of 374 issues traded, 273 advanced, 61 declined, and 40 issues remained unchanged.
Beximco was the most-traded stock with shares worth Tk 605 million changing hands, closely followed by IPDC Finance, Fortune Shoes, BSC and BD Finance. The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) gaining 118 points to settle at 18,280 and its Selective Categories Index (CSCX) rising 70 points to close at 10,966. Of the issues traded, 132 advanced, 88 declined and 35 issues remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor. The port-city bourse traded 5.20 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 136 million.
