DHAKA: The bubble burst again on Dhaka Stock Exchange Sunday with the price index plummeting to a new low gobbling up market capital worth Tk 6,507 crore on a single day – the biggest fall after the 1996 crash.
Market players attributed the Humpty-Dumpty storybook-like fall of the DSE benchmark to measures adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over loan facilities for brokerage houses and merchant banks.
President of the DSE Shakil Rezvi, however, urged the investors to hold patience and not to panic over a single day’s bearish market behaviour.
“The market will calm down soon and normalcy will prevail. The investors must not get panicked and sell out their shares,” he said to save the situation.
The DSE’s general index came down 204.75 points to 6222 – considered to be the worst dive in the market’s history after 1996. In February last year, the general index fell by 137 points. In 1996, the market was punched down from 3,649 points to 957, in what goes down as the worst market-manipulation scam amid a trading brouhaha.
Prices of shares of banks, insurance, financial institutions, power and energy, IT, services and ceramics received a massive price-fall blow.
However, only the mutual funds witnessed rise in a saving grace.
The investors blamed the SEC for its so-called ‘cooling measures’ for the market. One of the investors from capital’s Mirpur area, Abdul Karim Chowdhury, told banglanews24.com.bd that the officials of the SEC destabilized the market to make their own fortune.
“All this is a preplanned ploy that helps the manipulators,” he said, adding that the SEC has an entente with the manipulators that makes the small investors empty-pocket.
Out of 244 companies traded Sunday on the DSE, prices of shares of 51 companies increased while 191 dropped and two remained unchanged.
The premier bourse traded share of Tk 1,449.67 crore, Tk 335.26 crore less than the previous day’s mark.
Titas Gas topped the slot in trading Sunday followed by AB Bank, Lanka Bangla Finance, BSRM Steel, Beximco, RAK Ceramics, Desco Ltd, United Airways, Summit Power and One Bank.
The top-ten gainers were Prime Bank, 1st ICB AMCL Mutual Fund, United Airways, Dhaka Dying, Atlas Bangla, ICB AMCL 2nd Mutual Fund, Jeminie Sea Food, ICB Employees Provident 1st Mutual Fund Scheme-1, ICB 3rd NRB Mutual Fund, ICB 2nd NRB Mutual Fund and 7th ICB Mutual Fund.
On the other hand, top ten price-losing companies were IFIC, Kashem Silk, BSRM Steel, Pubali Bank, Samata Leather, Standard Ceramic, AB Bank, Lafarge Shurma cement, National Bank Ltd and United Commercial Bank Ltd.
BDST 1853 HRS, JULY 25, 2010
