Dhaka stocks continued to fall on Thursday for the third consecutive day as investors remained uncertain about the impacts of the proposed budgetary measures and went for selling off their shares as the budget had no provision for legalising undisclosed money for investment in the capital market.
Market operators said investors on Thursday continued to remain inactive on the trading floor as they were yet to get any clue about how the market would react after the new budgetary measures came into effect.
A number of individual investors also went for selling out their shareholdings driven by a fear that the government would not change its stance not to allow legalisation of undisclosed money for investment in the capital market, leading it to a further fall, they said.
'All these speculations have been affecting the market since the placement of the proposed budget for the next fiscal year in the parliament,' said a stockbroker.
He said, although the investors were optimistic before the budget proposal and started to become active in trading, the post-budget scenario had reversed from that.
In the six trading sessions before placement of the proposed budget in the parliament on June 9 Dhaka stocks had gained 321 points but since then the general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange has lost 231 points in five sessions.
The benchmark general index, or DGEN, of the DSE on Thursday lost 36.64 points or 0.63 per cent to close the day at 5,776.17 points.
Turnover of the bourse on the day, however, climbed by Tk 10 crore from that of Wednesday to Tk 485.61 crore.
Trading on the DSE started upbeat on the day, with the DGEN gaining around 40 points in 15 minutes. But, the gaining trend faded fast as the DGEN had continued to drop for the next 30 minutes, wiping out the opening gain. The index barely managed to make just one or two short-lived upward flights during the entire session and ended the day in red.
Mahmood Osman Imam, a professor of finance at Dhaka University, said, 'The post-budget trend of the market seemed induced and not reflecting its true picture.'
'If we see the rate of fluctuations of the DSE index and the corresponding turnover, it indicates the market is not normal, because when the index gained the turnover declined,' he pointed out, adding that, 'Some of the fluctuations might be created deliberately.'
Of the 253 issues traded on Thursday, 111 advanced, 130 declined, and 12 remained unchanged.
LankaBangla Finance Ltd topped the turnover leaders on the day with Tk 27.97 crore worth shares changing hands. The rest of the top-10 turnover leaders were One Bank Ltd, United Commercial Bank Ltd, City Bank Ltd, United Airways Ltd, Pubali Bank Ltd, AB Bank Ltd, Eastern Bank Ltd, Uttara Bank Ltd, and National Bank Ltd.
source:NewAge
