Dhaka stocks fall amid volatility

Dhaka stocks fell amid volatility Monday, triggered by the securities regulator's credit tightening measures, dealers said.
Some, however, said the impact of the regulator's move was far from expected, as a lot of buyers were still present in the market.
The benchmark DSE General Index (DGEN) was down by 0.89 per cent or 77.11 points to end at 8,521.05, scaling down from previous day's all-time peak of 8,598.17.
The fall also snapped up sixth straight session of gains.
The broader DSE All Shares Price Index (DSI) ended at 7,081.27, shedding 0.77 per cent or 55.17 points. The DSE-20 including blue chips index dropped 1.40 per cent or 72.47 points to 5,074.64.
On Sunday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) halved the loan margin ratio to 1:0.5 from 1:1, in an apparent move to tame the overbought market.
"Regulator's latest credit tightening move pushed the market down," said a stockbroker.
Investors sold off shares to book profits expecting further fall of the market but late modest buying helped it recover some points, he said. The market lost more than 90 points in the morning.
Turnover decreased slightly to Tk 27.45 billion from previous session's Tk 28.24 billion. Out of 245 issues traded, 135 closed positive, 107 negative and three remained unchanged.
"Impact of the regulator's move on the market was far from expected as a lot of buyers were present," said Akter H Sannamat, managing director of Prime Finance and Investment Ltd.
The move also confused the investors to differentiate between bad and good stocks as prices of bad stocks gained ground on the day, he said.
Sannamat said, "Main panacea to stabilise the market is to increase share supply."
All the major sectors declined. Banks lost 2.22 per cent, non-banking financial institutions 0.78 per cent, telecommunications 2.04 per cent, fuel and power 1.29 per cent, cement 1.83 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.19 per cent.
Two new stocks - Active Fine Chemicals Ltd and IFIL Islamic Mutual Fund-1 - made debut.
The former was the top gainer as it closed at Tk 132.60, gaining 1262 per cent from face value of Tk 10 while the latter was the day's top loser as the fund closed at Tk 9.30, down seven per cent from its issue price of Tk 10.
Beximco Limited topped the turnover leader with shares worth Tk 1.12 billion traded.
Other turnover leaders were UCBL, Peoples Leasing, NCC Bank, Shinepukur Ceramics, Shahjalal Bank, AB Bank, Bextex, Pubali Bank and National Bank.
-FE