Tech glitch halts DSE trade, stocks fall
A technical glitch suspended trade on the Dhaka Stock Exchange for more than two and a half hours yesterday, and the regulator asked the bourse to immediately submit a report on it.
“We asked them to explain why and how the malfunction took place,” said Saifur Rahman, spokesman and an executive director of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission.
“They (DSE) informed us of the matter from time to time, but we sought a report from them,” added Rahman, who also visited the prime bourse after the technical glitch stopped trade.
Some brokerage houses informed the DSE management that they were disconnected from the trading server although they logged in on the server in due time; they were unable to re-log in the server, the bourse said in a press statement.
Share transactions that usually take place between 10:30am and 2:30pm came to a halt at around 10:35am.
However, the problems were resolved and trading resumed on the premier bourse at 1:15pm and closed at 3:15pm.
Meanwhile, stocks finished in the red. DSEX, the benchmark general index of the DSE, lost 19 points or 0.41 percent to close the day at 4,573 points.
DSES, the shariah index of the premier bourse, slightly rose by 0.75 points or 0.07 percent to close at 1,020.96 points.
As trading time was slashed by half to only two hours for the technical issues, turnover plunged 46.7 percent to Tk 224 crore.
“With a slump in turnover due to the halt, the bourse ended in the negative,” IDLC Investments said in its regular market analysis.
Despite the prevailing offbeat sentiments, the dominance of selective heavy-weight scrips persisted, the merchant bank said.
Multinational companies continued to show robust performance with the names of six emerging in the top ten gainers' list.
“Backed by these, the large cap segment performed well with a 0.62 percent gain,” IDLC Investments added.
Losers took a strong lead over gainers as 186 declined, 68 advanced and 28 issues remained unchanged out of the 282 issues traded on the DSE floor.
Among the major sectors, telecommunications gained 1.64 percent and fuel and power 1.23 percent.
Facing significant correction, the banking sector lost 1.48 percent and the engineering sector lost 1.41 percent.
A total of 0.45 lakh trades were executed with 3.41 crore shares and mutual fund units changing hands on the Dhaka bourse.
Grameenphone dominated the turnover chart with 8.64 lakh shares worth Tk 22.46 crore changing hands, followed by Lafarge Surma Cement, Meghna Petroleum, Heidelberg Cement and Padma Oil.
Prime Insurance was the day's best performer, advancing 6.5 percent, while Rupali Insurance was the worst loser, slumping 9.68 percent.
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