Bangladesh’s premier bourse suffers biggest jolt in 3 yrs

DHAKA, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) — The benchmark index of Bangladesh’s main bourse — Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSEX) — Sunday tumbled at least 133 points, the biggest single-day fall in three years, amid some market cooling measures.
Statistics available on the DSE website showed the bourse’s DSEX, the main gauge of the market — plunged 133 points to 5,888 points from Thursday’s finish.
Among a total of 336 issues traded, 23 registered gains and 302 incurred losses while 11 remained unchanged on Sunday.
Against this backdrop, DSE authority has convened an emergency meeting with leaders of all relevant stake holders including Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association and the DSE Brokers Association.
The market has mainly suffered losses due to the recently announced central bank monetary policy that squeezes banks’ advancement in the stocks.
A stockbroker who did not like to be named pointed out the regulator’s intervention to control the credit flow into the market as the major reason for the latest downward.
Apart from this, he said an apparent unstable situation ahead of the country’s next parliament polls slated for early 2019 also contributed to the recent market volatility.
The DSEX reportedly fell nearly 327 points in the six working days prior to Sunday and 380 points in the past 30 working days.
Total turnover increased to about 3.65 billion taka (about 43.96 million U.S. dollars) on Sunday from about 3.29 billion taka (about 39.69 million U.S. dollars) on Thursday.  Enditem