The stock market regulator today narrowed the scope for individual stocks to fall in a trading day in an effort to halt panic selling and slow down the fall of the index.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) issued an order recalibrating the circuit breaker, saying that stocks of listed companies would not be allowed to fall more than 3 percent based on the previous day's closing price.

Earlier it was 10 percent.

However, the upper limit, meaning the extent the price of a stock can rise, has been kept unchanged at 10 percent.

The order will come into effect from tomorrow.

However, it will not be applicable for stocks for which the market regulator already has floor prices in place.

The floor price is the lowest price at which a stock can be traded.

At the end of July of 2022, the BSEC set the floor price of every stock to halt the free fall of the market indices amid global economic uncertainties.

The floor price was the average of the closing prices on July 28 of 2022 and the preceding four days.

At present it remains in effect for five companies -- Beximco, Islami Bank Bangladesh, Khulna Power Company, Meghna Petroleum and Shahjibazar Power Company.

Stocks have fallen on all but one of the past 8 days.