Dhaka bourse's benchmark index plunges to 20-month low

The DSEX stood at 5,794 at the end of trading on Wednesday, a 20-month low

The main index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange has fallen below 6,000 points on the second day of Ramadan after a significant drop on the first day of fasting.

At the end of trading on Wednesday, the DSEX stood at 5,974 points, the lowest level in 20 months.

The last time the index had dipped to this level was Jul 28, 2022, when it fell to 5,980 points. It had not dropped below 6,000 since then.

On Tuesday, the first day of fasting, the DSEX lost 51 points, following share transactions amounting to Tk 5.63 billion.

Trading began at 9am on Wednesday with the index standing at 6,006 points. After 13 minutes, the DSEX dropped six points and dipped below 6,000.

The index continued to drop until 11:30am, reaching 6,950. In between, the index tried to rally twice, but it did not sustain the rise.

But a little after 11:30am, it started to turn around and by noon, the DSEX had recovered by quite a margin. It even crossed 6,000 points around 12:30pm.

But, after that, it declined again slowly, eventually hitting 5,974 points at the end of trading.

The DSE closed with a turnover of Tk 4.83 billion on Wednesday. Of the stocks traded, the prices of 222 fell, 112 rose, and 60 remained unchanged.

The stock market is usually less active during Ramadan, but the significant drop in the index from the start of the month is unusual, said Saiful Islam, president of the DSE Brokers Association of Bangladesh.

“We are trying to understand the market as well,” he said. “There is no apparent reason for the decline in the index, but there may be psychological factors at play. Share prices did not fall too far, so it looks like the index will return to where it was.”

Shahjahan Omar, an individual investor, said, “There will be fewer transactions during Ramadan. This time it was much lower from the start. It slowed down due to the DSE’s IT woes. Traders from brokerage firms have also slowed. We will understand where the problem is after a few more days.”