Stocks reel under mutiny fallout

Stocks skidded last week as the market was rattled by a two-day bloody mutiny by a group of rebels of the border security guards.
Dhaka Stock Exchange starts trading today half an hour behind schedule to mark the national mourning day.
Although the market started with a positive note on last Sunday, the first trading day of the week, and remained almost steady for the next couple of days, it came down during the last two sessions amid anxiety over the mutiny at Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Pilkhana, Dhaka.
Some jawans of BDR (Bangladesh Rifles), the official border security force, mutinied at their headquarters on Wednesday, spreading fear and confusion also on Thursday.
The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSE General Index, fell 28.12 points, or 1.08 percent to 2,570.96, on the week-on-week basis. The DSE All Share Price Index also shed 17.51 points, or 0.081 percent to 2,144.29 on Thursday, the last trading of the week.
Although the market felt the pinch of the mutiny, which left many nervous investors on the edge, the market did not get panicked, analysts said.
The capital market is influenced by both economic and non-economic factors. The BDR mutiny was a non-economic but a major incident. It is very natural that it would have an impact, at least psychological, on the stock market, said Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, a professor of finance at Dhaka University.
The market rout was paced by psychological fallout from hours of gunfights at the BDR headquarters, Khan said.
However, it was a good sign that not every investor lost confidence, said a merchant banker. “This time the investors showed matured behaviour,” he added.
Both the total and daily average turnovers, however, rose by 26.08 percent. The total turnover on the DSE last week was Tk 1,882.81 crore, which was Tk 1,493.30 crore in previous week.
The daily average turnover was Tk 376.56 crore last week against Tk 298.66 crore in the previous week.
A total of 15,75,06,963 shares were traded last week against the previous week's 11,36,99,180 shares, which was 38.53 percent up.
Majority of the securities traded up on the premier bourse. Of the 277 traded issues, 173 advanced, 102 declined and two remained unchanged.
Total market capitalisation however fell 0.56 percent to Tk 99,933.50 crore from Tk 1,00,495.93 crore the previous week.
Shinepukur Ceramics topped the turnover leaders with 75,61,700 traded shares worth Tk 80.43 crore, which was 4.27 percent of the total turnover. The week's other turnover leaders were S Alam Cold Rolled Steels, Beximco Pharma, Titas Gas, Beximco, British-American Tobacco Bangladesh, AIMS 1st Mutual Fund, Summit Power, Golden Son and Eastern Housing.
On the Chittagong Stock Exchange, the CSE Selective Categories Index slid 1.61 percent to 5,059.73 points. The CSE All Share Price Index also dropped 1.31 percent to 7,870.63 points.
A total of 3,05,09,123 shares worth Tk 236.25 crore changed hands on the port city bourse last week.
Of the 204 traded issues, 101 advanced, 93 declined and 10 remained unchanged.
Shinepukur Ceramics topped the turnover leaders on the CSE with 13,53,400 traded shares worth Tk 14.40 crore. The week's other turnover leaders were Beximco, AIMS 1st Mutual Fund, Beximco Pharma, Grameen Mutual Fund One: Scheme Two, Meghna Petroleum, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels, Jamuna Oil, Titas Gas and Maksons Spinning.