DHAKA, May 31, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh’s both the bourses –Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) resumed activities today after 66-day of closure rendered by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Trading and settlement activities on the bourses began following necessary health safety guidelines issued by ministry of health and family welfare.
However, presence of investors was low in brokerage houses as many investors participated in trading online.
The authorities’ concerned also discouraged people for rushing physically rather requested them to participate in trading through online using mobile apps and others medium.
Trading will take place three hours instead of usual four hours, from 10:30am to 1:30pm, due to COVID-19 outbreak.
Two bourses were closed since March 26, as the government announced general holiday as part of its efforts to contain the spread of deadly virus outbreak.
Both, DSE and CSE ended sessions witnessing positive vibe from the beginning of the trading.
At DSE, the broad index, DSEX closed at 4060.44 points on Sunday, the first day of week, with a gain of 52.15 points or 1.30 percent.
Besides, the two selective indices, Blue Chip index, DSE30 and Shariah index, DSES also went up by 34.53 points and 30.91 points to settle at 1365.37 points and 951.60 points respectively.
On the DSE trading floor, a total number of 28,873 trades were executed in today’s trading session with a trading volume of 43.95 million securities.
Market turnover, another crucial indicator, stood at Taka 1.43 billion.
Loser took a lead over gainers as out of 323 issues traded, 60 securities gained price while 68 declined and 195 remained unchanged.
The top 10 gainers were Beximco Limited, Prime Finance First Mutual Fund, ACI Limited, Central Pharma, ACI Formulation, Square Pharma, Indo-Bangla Pharma, Beximco Pharma, Shahazibazar Power and ACME Lab.
Square Pharma topped the turnover chart followed by Beximco Pharma, Grameenphone, Orion Pharma, Beximco Limited, Silva Pharma, Central Pharma, Indo-Bangla Pharma, Reckit Benchizer and Monno Ceramics.
The top 10 losers were AB Bank, Standard Bank, Altex Industries, Premier Bank, Exim Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Dhaka Bank, Aziz Pipes, Jamuna Bank and National Bank.
Since the pharmaceutical businesses are running well amid the on-going pandemic, industry insiders said, investors are showing interest in pharmaceutical sector.
On the other hand, port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed at green at the first day after the closure.
CSCX and CASPI increased by 92.25 points and 141.02 points to stand at 6952.15 points and 11469.02 points respectively.
At CSE, a total of 1,615,837 shares and mutual fund of 109 companies were traded, of which 31 issues advanced while 24 declined and 54 issues remained unchanged.