Stocks plunge despite de-escalation of Russia-Ukraine war

Indices of both the stock exchanges on Wednesday failed to maintain the previous two days' momentum, while other Asian share markets surged on signs of de-escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war.

DSEX, the Dhaka Stock Exchange's (DSE) benchmark index, fell 11.62 points or 0.17% to close at 6,753, while the blue-chip index – DS30 – decreased 0.25% to 2,464 yesterday.

Out of the 379 issues traded at the DSE yesterday, 122 advanced, 211 declined, and 46 remained unchanged.

CASPI, the main index of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also went down by 0.14% or 29 points to 19,775.

In its daily market review, EBL Securities Limited said following the previous two days' streak, investors engaged in selloffs to take advantage of the rising markets. While the market turned red, the insurance sector gained heavily yesterday as the securities regulator's request to the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority to take steps to list non-listed insurance companies raised optimism among the investors. As a result, nine out of the top 10 gainers yesterday were insurance companies.

Meanwhile, the premier bourse observed a decrease in participation while its turnover declined by 25% and stood at Tk732.84 crore as against Tk981.61 crore in the previous session.

On Wednesday, the tannery sector contributed the highest – 12.8% – in the DSE's total turnover, followed by the general insurance and engineering sectors.

Fortune Shoe dominated the scrip-wise turnover board and contributed 11% of the total turnover, followed by Genex Infosys and Beximco Limited.

Investors took the highest return of 3.5% from the general insurance sector, followed by tannery and life insurance.