DSE turnover bottoms to 11-month low

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Sunday witnessed the lowest turnover in the last 11 months as most investors are afraid of engaging in the market amid global economic turbulence due to commodity market volatility and price hikes for necessities.

The turnover stood at Tk393.97 crore, which was 26% lower than the previous session. The earlier lowest turnover was Tk236 crore on 5 April 2021 at the country's premier bourse.

"Retail and institutional investors are not investing in the down market for fear of further losses. Besides, the participation of speculative traders is also low. So the transaction has decreased," Md Moniruzzaman, managing director of IDLC Investments Limited, told The Business Standard.

"There is a lack of professionals in investment management in our market. Therefore, the contribution of institutional investors in the stock market is not increasing," he added.

Amid the low turnover, investors' sell-off brought down the equity indices of both DSE and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) on Sunday.

At the end of the session, the key index DSEX of the DSE lost 30 points to close at 6,554, whereas the blue-chip index DS30 fell 5 points to 2,435.

Out of the 379 issues traded at the DSE, 58 advanced, 280 declined, and 41 remained unchanged.

The port city bourse CSE's all-share price index CASPI also plunged 0.33% or 64 points to 19,302.

EBL Securities Limited said in its daily market review, that worries of investors loomed amid global economic turbulence due to commodity market volatility and price hikes for necessities, resulting in a liquidity constraint in the capital market as most investors are afraid to engage in the market at the moment.

The prolonged pessimism kept investors inactive, as they lost their appetite for risk-taking in the negative market, it added.

On Sunday, the miscellaneous sector contributed the highest turnover of 13.4% to the DSE, followed by the paper and pharmaceutical sectors.

Sonali Paper dominated the scrip-wise turnover board and contributed 12.4% of the total turnover, followed by Beximco Limited and Salvo Chemical.

Investors received the highest return from the telecom sector, which was followed by services and food, where the paper was the top loss-making sector at the DSE.

Beximco Pharma was in the top position on the loser list, where its share price fell by 2% on that day. The newly listed company JMI Hospital secured the top position on the gainer list at the premier bourse.