From New Age
The massive fall in share prices on the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Monday triggered fresh street demonstrations by the aggrieved investors in demand of a clear government policy for stabilising the capital market.
DGEN, the benchmark general index of the DSE, lost 3.33 per cent, or 167.68 points, on the day to close at 4,864.30 points. The DGEN slipped by 358 points in the past three days.
Agitated investors staged rowdy demonstrations in front of the DSE building at Motijheel keeping the traffic from Shapla square to Ittefaq crossing at a standstill from 12:20pm to 3:30pm.
Trading at the bourse started in a negative mood on the day with the DGEN losing around 125 points in the first five minutes. The index had fluctuated heavily throughout the session before closing below the psychological benchmark of 5,000 points.
Investors rushed out of different brokerage houses on the street at around 12:20pm and formed a human chain in front of the entrance to the DSE.
They set piles of wooden materials and paper on fire
and chanted slogans against National Board of Revenue chairman Nasiruddin Ahmed, finance minister AMA Muhith, Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, and DSE president Shakil Rizvi for their failure to bring back stability to the market which had been passing through a depression for more than long one year.
The demonstrating investors demanded withdrawal of the latest NBR order banning investment of money earned in criminal ways in the securities market.
The statutory regulatory order of the revenue board said if the money was earned through criminal acts outlined in other laws then that fund would not be accorded the same privilege as that of undisclosed money.
Earlier in the budget session, the government allowed investment of undisclosed money in stocks without raising any question, subject to payment of a 10 per cent tax.
The NBR on several occasions said the provision would not be changed before the next national budget.
From the demo, investors also demanded stable government policies for stabilising the market. ‘When government policies regarding the equities market are not stable then how will those stabilise the market,’ an investor named Hamid asked.
‘The government is always coming up with short-term solutions for the market while prescribing us to go for long-term investment. This is really ridicules,’ he said.
To a question about the recent market downtrend and investors’ allegations, DSE senior vice president Ahasanul Islam first called on the investors to remain calm and act rationally. He then said, ‘The market is very sensitive and investors are reacting in a mercurial pace to its every change.’
He said the recent market downtrend was a cumulative effect of a number of issues.
‘The margin loan problem is still haunting the market and the lack of institutional participation has been intensifying it,’ he said.
He also said that ‘Rather than going for selling shares at a loss, investors should wait for corporate disclosures due to come out soon.’
The benchmark general index of the country’s premier bourse had slid 37 per cent over 2011 in a worst-ever crash that wiped out investments made by many thousands.
The DGEN which had stood at 8,290.41 points on December 31, 2010, closed on Thursday, the last trading day of the year, at 5,257.60 points, posting a lose of 3,032 points over the last calendar year.
Lack of coordination between the regulatory authorities and other stakeholders also made the measures taken by the government to rejuvenate the country’s ailing capital market ineffective. And so, the Dhaka stocks continued to fall like a stone from miles high in a hopeless, helpless state.
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