The New Nation - Internet Edition

Pulack Ghatack

Bangladesh's capital market seems to be unaffected by the country's politics, as arrest and release of top leaders, uncertainty, possibility of turmoil or progress towards democracy do not cast any impact on it.

The indices in the country's twine bourses rather march to opposite direction to what it is expected in other countries in the cases of highly sensitive political developments.

Share prices plunged sharply on stock exchanges of Dhaka and Chittagong yesterday, when former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia was released marking a progress towards democracy through election.

It happened opposite on September 3 last year, when Khaleda Zia was arrested. The total turnover on the on the DSE reached to its peak of Tk 214.79 crore on that day.

Despite the arrest of the former prime minister, the banking sector shares continued surging. "It seems the market gets used to recent political developments in the country," market analysts said at that time.

Same was the case when another Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was arrested and released.

The July 16 arrest of Hasina, that mounted political uncertainty, cast a slight shadow on the buyers and sellers at capital market when people from all spheres of life had been discussing and questioning one another about the future of the country.

The stocks rather rallied paradoxically with the political scenario. Stocks suffered a brief jolt in the morning trade on that day on the news of arrest of Awami League president Sheikh Hasina.

The news of Hasina's arrest triggered a panic selling at the Dhaka Stock Exchange and stock prices fell 15 points within 15 minutes from the opening. But the perplexity was short-lived and the market soon started picking up on buying pressure spurred by positive disclosures of Square Pharmaceuticals, a big corporate house.

Turnover on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) reached a new height of Tk 2.39 billion at the end of that day, breaking the June 26 height of Tk 2.34 billion. Trading at Chitagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed higher yesterday with the gainers dominating the losers.

However, yesterday the stocks plunged sharply at DSE and CSE when it was expected to be a day for the gainers in view of political progress with release of Khaleda Zia.

Amidst a low trading at DSE, the total turnover dipped to Tk 3.23 billion yesterday as 147 declined, 69 gained and 7 remained unchanged as 20,022,180 shares changed hands.

The DGEN or general index of DSE declined 9.36 points or 0.33 per cent at 2850.17. The DSI or all-share price index went down 14.82 points or 0.61 per cent to finish at 2406.71, while the DSE-20 blue-chip index fall 9.36 points or .24 per cent to 2442.29.

In Chittagong, the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) decreased by 0.11 percent or 9.70 points to close at 8739.48 points from Wednesday's 8749.18 points.

The CSE-30 Index also shed by 0.14 percent to close at 7789.54 points from 7800.91 points on the previous trading day.

A total of 144 issues were traded at CSE yesterday. Of them, 54 gained, 87 declined and three remained unchanged.

The share market is showing its insensitivity to political prospects with release of former Prime Minister and BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, market analysts observed.