The Daily Star: Dhaka stocks slumped yesterday amid selling pressure especially from retail investors, shaken by the current global financial crisis. Heavy sell-offs however pulled up the premier bourse's turnover to an all-time high at Tk 590.51 crore, surpassing the previous highest of Tk 550 crore on June 8 this year.

“In some cases, the retail investors were nervous,” said Dhaka Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer Salahuddin Ahmed Khan.

In yesterday's topsy-turvy trade, most sellers were retail investors, while most buyers were institutions that take the opportunity of buying shares at lower prices, said the DSE CEO.

In a briefing at the DSE, Khan also said the local investors should not fear any fallout from the global financial crisis on the local capital market.

He said the current global financial rout was unlikely to hurt the country's capital market, as the Bangladesh market was not tied to international capital markets.

The benchmark index of the premier bourse, DSE General Index, went down 80.63 points, or 2.74 percent, to 2855.93 points. The DSE All Share Price Index dropped by 68.99 points, or 2.83 percent, to 2366.46 points.

Yawer Sayeed, managing director of AIMS of Bangladesh, said the global crisis might have created psychological pressure on investors as they read and watch a glut of financial news both in the print and electronic media about global stocks in freefall.

He, however, said it would not trigger a market crush here, as it appeared from yesterday's market that most investors took profit from selling shares.

The huge decline in the indices can be attributed to profit-taking, he added.

Most securities traded down on the DSE. Of the 236 traded issues, only 43 gained, 192 declined and one remained unchanged. A total of 4,61,73,445 shares were traded on the prime bourse.

The market slipped in the minutes after the opening bell. The bourse appeared to have bounced back as it recovered almost total losses in the following one hour.

The market started to fall at a constant rate, which continued for the rest of the day.

Market capitalisation came down to Tk 99,915.07 crore from the previous day's Tk 1,02,17,966 crore.

Chittagong stocks also slumped yesterday. The CSE Selective Categories Index went down by 166.86 points, or 2.82 percent, to 5732.29 points, while the CSE All Share Price Index shot down by 247.74 points, or 2.74 percent, to 8776.34 points.

A total of 99,06,855 shares worth Tk 89.73 crore changed hands on the Chittagong Stock Exchange. Of the 145 issues traded on the port city bourse, 24 advanced and 121 declined.