Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-A technical glitch delayed trade on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) for about four hours on Sunday and promoted the DSE authorities to reduce trading hours to only 1 hour and 40 minutes instead of four hours.
Share transactions usually take place between 10:30am and 2:30pm in five working day of a week.
However, DSE trading started at 2:20pm and continued to 4pm, after a 3 hour and 50 minutes delay due to technical problems at DSE server.
“Due to a technical issue Dhaka Stock Exchange delayed commencement of trade by 3 hours and 50 minutes on May 24,” said a statement of the DSE.
This delayed start resulted in a shorter trading period of one hour and 40 minutes compared to 4 hours of normal trading, the DSE statement added.
DSE and its international technology partners worked in three jurisdictions to resolve this issue and to open trading facility as soon as possible.
The combined effort of all those involved has resulted in market opening at 2:20pm for all brokers, albeit for a truncated trading session of 1 hour 40 minutes.
DSE very much regrets disruption of trading facility to all market participants and for the inconvenience thus caused, it said.
Amid the reduced trading hours, Dhaka stocks closed flat with thin trading activities.
In the shorten trading session, DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, finished at 4,484.62 points, gaining 1.34 points or 0.02 per cent.
However, DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 0.98 points or 0.05 per cent to close at 1,682.44 points.
DSES index declined 1.52 points or 0.14 per cent to end at 1,081.40 points.
Turnover dropped to Tk 3.43 billion on DSE, which was 56 per cent lower than previous session’s Tk 7.79 billion.
Losers took a marginal lead over the gainers as out of 300 issues traded, 136 declined, 133 advanced and 31 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
KPCL was the day’s top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 252.40 million changing hands followed by Saif Powertec, Summit Alliance Port Ltd, BSCCL and United Power.
Power Grid Company was the day’s best performer, posting 9.84 per cent gain while Familytex was the day’s worst loser, slumping by 15.16 per cent.
However, trading at the port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) started on time at 10:30am and closed flat with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX – gained 0.43 points to close at 8,454.35 points.
Losers beat gainers 128 to 80, with 27 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 23.57 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover of Tk 813.27 million.