The Dhaka Stock Exchange All Share Price index nosedived by more than 89 points yesterday as investors rushed for panic sale following a crackdown on alleged market manipulations on Wednesday.

Panic griped the DSE following the issuance of arrest warrants against leading brokers and owners of a number of listed companies for their alleged involvement in market manipulation.

The major market indicators of the DSE experienced massive fall during the brief trading amid fear and tension on the floor as leading brokers refrained themselves from trading.

Though the trading started as usual at 10 am yesterday, the attendance of brokers and authorised dealers were very low and everyone was panicky. DSE sources said. * t '

.. J ^ti-r jjalfe M^ahir^htinues, up but the DSE trading floor was closed down before 4 pm yesterday.

Among (he senior officials of the DSE only its honorary secretary Shahiq Khan was present at the office yesterday.

The DSE All Share Price index nose-dived by 89.40 points to 1138.09 points from 1225.45 points at the end of the previous day's trading.

DSE market capitalisation lost Tk 454.53 crore closing at Tk 9.207.98 crore from Tk 9.657.61 crore.

Prices of 100 companies suffered losses and only 10 gained while 3 remained unchanged out of total 113 traded issues.

Trading in volume and value also fell by 21 and 24 per cent respectively as 2.09 lakh shares and debentures worth Tk 4.36 crore changed hands against transaction of 2.62 lakh shares valued at Tk 5.76 crore on the previous day.

According to the DSE sources, the leading brokers and high officials of the DSE including its chairman Imtiyaz Hossain and vice chairman Ahmed Iqbal Hasan did not attend office yesterday. They were not available over telephone despite repeated attempts by this correspondent.

In yesterday's trading, accused companies. Olympic Industries lost Tk 66 per share. Apex Food Tk 224. Amam Sea Food Tk 259. Beximco Pharma Tk 12.50. Shine Pukur Holdings Tk 16.79. Chic TexTk 1.18 arid Chit tagong Cement Tk 133.

Singer (Bangladesh) Ltd against whom allegation of forward trading was reported to the enquiry committee, shed a massive Tk 2812 per share in just one day's trading.