Stocks plummet

Dhaka stocks fell heavily yesterday, as mutual funds and bank shares witnessed a sharp decline in prices.
The benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSE General Index, went down 81.39 points, or 1.85 percent to 4,312.24.
The 4.92 percent decline in mutual fund prices came as a result of market regulator's new restrictions on margin loans, market operators say.
Following a two-month suspension of sanctioning loans against mutual funds, a set of new criterion was announced Thursday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It said mutual funds must trade in a limited range to qualify for margin loans. The funds that trade 7.5 percent higher than their latest NAV (net asset value) will not qualify for the loans. It means if a mutual fund has Tk 100 in NAV per unit and trades only up to Tk 107.50 (7.5 percent higher than NAV), margin loans can be approved for the fund.
Apart from mutual funds, the banking sector also went down 3.02 percent as all the banks, except Rupali Bank, traded in the red.
Among the biggest loser, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Southeast Bank and Shahjalal Islami Bank lost more than 5 percent each.
Shares in other sectors such as telecom, non-banking financial institutions, fuel and power, pharmaceuticals and cement also declined.
The broader DSE All Share Price Index dropped 65.8 points, or 1.8 percent to 3,576.22.
The losers outnumbered the advancers 199 to 34 with two securities remained unchanged. A total of 2,83,94,347 shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 748.86 crore were traded on the premier bourse.
Chittagong stocks also plunged yesterday. The CSE Selective Categories Index went down 157.46 points, or 1.9 percent to 8,107.61. The CSE All Share Price Index dropped 232.61 points, or 1.82 percent to 12,536.61.
A total of 51,30,432 shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 67.65 crore changed hands on the Chittagong Stock Exchange. Of the traded issues on the port city bourse, 18 advanced, 135 declined and two remained unchanged.