Bruised investors brace for new week

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A new week begins for apprehensive stock investors as they go through their portfolios trying to make sense of the downtrend of the past five working days.
Data of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) shows that both index and turnover tumbled, forcing investors to go for sell-offs over fears that the value erosion would persist.

The drop of the DSEX, the DSE’s benchmark index, was of 77.90 points, or 1.58 percent. The week before it had similarly shed 79 points.

Comparing the two weeks, the daily average turnover, another important indicator of the market, plunged 9.95 percent to Tk 379 crore.

A stock broker said investors were fearful and frustrated due to the recent continuous fall, so most were getting rid of shares to salvage what was left of their investment.

Such a tendency is not good for the market so support is required to boost confidence from here on so that they can get encouragement to make investments, he said while talking to The Daily Star on Thursday.

One of his peers said the telecom and insurance sectors saved the index from a huge fall last week as all the others had slid erratically.

The telecom sector, led by heavyweight Grameenphone, rose 9.8 percent, turning out to be the top contributor to the index.

According to the DSE data, GP stocks jumped 9.5 percent thanks to government steps towards resolving an issue between the largest listed telecom company and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

On September 4, the BTRC had sent a notice to GP giving 30 days to explain why its licence would not be cancelled for violating associated conditions by not paying Tk 12,579 crore in dues.

The news took a toll on the company’s stocks, which fell around 21 percent in the past two months.

Meanwhile, life insurance and general insurance sectors also rose 7.7 and 5.8 percent respectively.

A merchant banker said the insurance sector’s contribution culminated from some positive announcements made by the finance minister. On Monday, AHM Mustafa Kamal said all kinds of structures, including buildings and flats, must be brought under insurance coverage as the government looks to develop the insurance sector.

“Such a comment of the minister created hope among investors as these steps would give a boost to the insurance sector,” added the merchant banker, preferring anonymity.

This led to the top gainers’ list being full of insurers. Provati Insurance topped the list with 35.64 percent gain followed by Global Insurance, Federal Insurance, Paramount Insurance and Janata Insurance.

Stock broker UCB Capital Management in its market analysis said positive developments, such as the central bank relaxing the advance deposit ratio and the BTRC moving towards settling the issue with GP, could not halt the sell-offs.

Moreover, the news regarding the stock market regulator directing the DSE to investigate trading of some stocks over alleged price manipulation contributed to the fall. 
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

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