Volatility drags stocks down to nearly 1.5-year low

Stock trade data displayed on the DSE website.

Dhaka stocks closed lower for the second consecutive session on Thursday and the major index hit near to a one-and-a half-year low as cautious investors preferred not to chase uncertain profits in the volatile market.

DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, settled at 1.13% lower to 6,156 points – the lowest since 11 August 2022.

However, Thursday's closing value was still above Sunday's intraday low of 6,122, where the market had nosedived at the opening that day, having a post-floor free fall in around 200 stocks. Later, it continued recovery till Tuesday as the index hit 6,300, defying the second trench floor withdrawal for 23 more stocks.

The index failed to sustain there as investors did not continue with their buying appetite amid the volatility sparked by a rumour that the floor price for the remaining 12 large cap stocks might be withdrawn at the weekend, which might drag the indices sharply down.

Till Thursday evening, the 12 stocks, including heavyweight stocks like Grameenphone, Beximco Ltd, Robi, remained under floor price restriction.

"The indices fell for the second straight day as investors opted to safeguard their funds from the prevailing volatility in the market and preferred to hold onto cash amid an uncertain market momentum," wrote EBL Securities in its daily market commentary on Thursday.  

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, at the first trench removed prices for all but 35 scrips from Sunday and later the number came down to 12 from Tuesday.

Meanwhile, market turnover fell by 25.8% to Tk871 crore on Thursday.

Over the week, the number of stocks falling without bidders kept decreasing. On Sunday, 129 scrips had no bidder at the day's lowest possible price, which came down to 15 on Thursday as falling stocks kept attracting buyers gradually.