B Mirror Report: Trading on the stock market continued with a sharp decline on the first working day of the week, with the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) recording a steep fall at the opening.

Within just one minute of trading at 10:00am, the benchmark DSEX index dropped by 223 points, marking what many consider the largest one-minute fall in the history of the country’s stock market.

Market analysts said the capital market is highly sensitive to global geopolitical developments, and conflicts often have an immediate impact. They noted that past wars, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, had also affected Bangladesh’s stock market. The recent attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran have triggered fresh negative sentiment, which may continue to influence the market in the coming days.

Market data showed that most shares declined at the start of trading, causing the sharp drop in the index. However, some stocks and mutual fund units later recovered slightly, reducing the extent of the record fall.

During the first hour of trading, until 11:00am, only 19 securities posted gains, while 355 declined and 13 remained unchanged.

Due to the large number of declining securities, the DSEX index stood at 5,473 points at 11:00am, down by 128 points. Among other indices, the DSE Shariah Index fell by 22 points to 1,094, while the blue-chip DSE-30 Index dropped by 49 points to 2,121 compared to the previous trading day.