Investors return to Dhaka Stock Exchange after floor price is lifted

Investors have come back to Dhaka Stock Exchange a day after the regulator lifted floor price for shares of all but 35 firms, with over Tk 10 billion turnover for the first time in more than six months.

Many of the companies that lost 10 percent of their value or near the level on the first day of trading with no floor price on Sunday regained on Monday.

But the main index almost reached the circuit breaker initially before rising again.

It lost 216 points in the first six minutes of trading on Sunday and regained 120 points from there in the next 4:15 hours. Finally, the loss stood at 96 points.

The index also started with a 51-point fall on Monday, but turned around shortly afterwards. It ended on a positive note, adding 14 points to 6,254, showing signs of regained confidence among the investors.

Shares of as many as 207 companies advanced, 145 declined and 40 remained unchanged.

The turnover stood over Tk 10.42 billion. It was Tk 10.44 billion for the last time on Jul 18, 2023.

Aftab Uddin Biswas, managing director of CVC Brokerage Limited, said individual investors along with the institutional ones started buying shares.

“Shares of some companies were without trading for many days. Those buying shares have taken this opportunity. Now the shares are being traded as even old investors have returned,” he said.

But Sajedur Rahman, a general investor, is still cautious about the market because it appears to him that “some parties” are propping up the market artificially by dragging it up whenever the index falls.

“What’ll happen to the general investors if they leave the market suddenly? So, I’ll decide about investing after watching the market for some more days,” he said.

Square Pharmaceuticals topped the list of shares that advanced while Walton Hi-tech lost the most.