Turnover of Dhaka Stock Exchange dipped to a fresh five-year low on Monday as intense liquidity crisis continued to hurt the market amid shrinking confidence among the investors.
DGEN, the benchmark general index of the bourse, declined by 0.49 per cent or 20.61 points, to close at 4,116.25 points.
The turnover of the prime bourse was Tk 101.57 crore on Monday as it fell further from Sunday’s Tk 106.18 crore, the third lowest in the last five years.
The new year had not been a kind one to the bourse as the turnover on Tuesday last was Tk 104.31 crore, the second lowest in the last five years.
Market operators said intense liquidity crisis is the key reason behind the continuous fall in turnover and share prices.
The suspense over the upcoming monetary policy for the next half year that would be declared by the Bangladesh Bank by the end of this month is another reason behind the market’s continuous downtrend, they added.
A merchant banker said that the newly corrected index, which is likely to be introduced by the end of this month, is another reason behind the investors’ inactivity.
The retail investors blamed the market downtrend on the inactivity of the institutional investors while the latter blamed it on the liquidity crisis.
Sudden investment inflows, mostly from the banking sector, gave rise to a boom in 2010 over which the DGEN had skyrocketed by 82.87 per cent to 8,290.41 points, with the peak of 8,918.51 points reached on December 5.
The DSE turnover reached its record high on December 5, 2010 to Tk 3,249.57 crore. But just two months later the DGEN came down from 8,723.18 points on December 1, 2010 to 7,572.61 points on January 30, 2011.
The aftershock of the crash has been continuing since then as the DGEN had lost 3,032 points in 2011 and 1,038 points in 2012.
The lowest turnover in the near future was Tk 81.54 crore, recorded on January 8, 2008.
Among the 267 issues traded on Monday, 66 advanced, 167 declined and 34 remained unchanged.
United Air topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 7.52 crore changing hands.
NCCBL Mutual Fund-1 topped the gainers’ list as its shares went up by 7.89 per cent while Reckitt Benckiser lost the most, 3.96 per cent.