Dhaka stocks rising after fall

  Dhaka, Nov 28 (bdnews24.com)?The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) general index has been erratic in the first half of the day's trading amidst protests by retail investors.

The benchmark index lost over 121 points in the first five minutes of Monday's trading to go below the 5000 mark and continued with the downward trend to lose 130.40 points or 2.57 percent to 4934.77 points at 11:31am.

The index started to gain afterwards and rose to 5003.20 points around 12:10pm with a fall of 61.97 points or 1.22 percent from Sunday's close. It stood at 5074.12 points with a gain of 8.94 points or 0.17 percent at 1pm.

Retail investors, under the banners of Capital Market Investors' Unity Council and Federation of Bangladesh Capital Market Investors Forum, started demonstration around 12:15pm protesting against the precipitous fall in share prices at the day's opening.

Trading of shares of newly listed Zahin Textile Industries Limited and Rangpur Dairy and Food Products Limited started on Monday.

Shares of 127 firms, which would change their face value to Tk 10 on Dec 1, are being traded on the spot market for three days beginning Monday. Trading of the shares will be closed for Dec 1, the record date.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled its incentives package on Wednesday, with provisions for increased commercial banks, merchant banks and foreign investments. SEC also made it mandatory for the sponsor directors of all listed companies to have at least 30 percent stakes, and those below the level must buy back their shares within six months.

The central bank extended the deadline for commercial banks to adjust their single-party exposure relating to share market to Dec 31, 2013 by one year, in a major move to inject more cash into the market. The Bangladesh Bank also redefined "exposure" when the commercial banks will invest through subsidiaries such as merchant banking.

But the steps, along with National Board of Revenue's confirmation that investors will face no question while investing untaxed money in the capital market, seemed to fail to return investors confidence on the market as the general index slid to 5065.18 points at Sunday's closing, a loss of 5.73 percent from the week's opening.

Shares worth nearly Tk 4.51 billion changed hands with losers far outnumbering gainers 247 to 7. Retail investors also demonstrated on Sunday demanding a stabilised market.

bdnews24.com/ffs/ost/bd/1310h

Source: bdnews24.com

Read More on Ittefaq Dhaka