Bangladesh’s stock market continues its old cycle of price drops. On Thursday, for the third consecutive day, the majority of listed companies saw a decline in their share prices. As a result, the main index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSEX) dropped by 54 points, settling at 4,781 points — the lowest point since August 25, 2020, nearly five years ago. Due to the deepening fall, trading volume also remained below Tk 300 crore.
Interestingly, the day began with price gains for most shares. Within the first half hour of trading, the DSEX index rose by nearly 21 points to reach 4,856 points, backed by rising prices of over 200 shares. However, persistent price declines caused the index to fall by 77 points from the day’s peak, closing at 4,779 points just before the end of trading.
Following the change of government last August, the first four working days saw a significant rise in share prices, indexes, and trade volumes. Since then, however, the market has faced a continuous downward trend.
Even though record remittance inflows from expatriates and growth in the export sector have eased the dollar crisis and improved the country’s current account situation, these positive developments are not reflected in the stock market.
Market confidence took a further hit after the latest high-level meeting, chaired by the chief adviser, failed to announce any short-term measures to restore investor confidence, according to officials at various brokerage houses.
As per end-of-day data, out of 360 listed companies on the DSE, shares of 357 were traded. Among them, only 40 shares saw price increases, while 285 shares declined and 32 remained unchanged. Of the 37 listed closed-end mutual funds, 31 experienced price drops.
A review shows that most companies across all sectors experienced share price declines. While 11 companies and mutual funds saw gains of over 3%, 80 others experienced equivalent price drops.
Yesterday, the total transaction volume at the Dhaka stock market was also below Tk 300 crore. On Thursday, trading amounted to around Tk 297 crore, which was Tk 2.5 crore higher than Wednesday’s turnover.
