Bomb threat forces DSE to cut short trading

A telephoned threat to bomb the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Monday forced the authorities concerned to stop trading at the bourse forty-five minutes earlier than the scheduled closing time, said a senior official.
When contacted, DSE’s president Rakibur Rahman told New Age from Singapore over the phone, ‘We think the fake bomb threat was an act of sabotage. It was made to create panic and was meant to destabilise the market.’
The bourse’s authorities halted trading at 1:15pm instead of the scheduled 2:00pm after a bomb explosion was threatened by an unknown caller over the phone, the DSE’s senior vice-president, Saiful Islam, told reporters.
‘The bomb threat was made over the phone at about 11:00am by an anonymous caller who said the bourse’s building would be blown up by 2:00pm,’ said Saiful Islam.
He told reporters that the caller had claimed that a bomb had been hidden inside the main building of the bourse.
‘We halted transactions at 1:15pm and then evacuated the building,’ he said.
‘Various law-enforcing agencies, including the RAB, conducted a thorough search and told us that they had found no bomb in the DSE building and its annexe,’ said Saiful Islam.
He assured the investors and other stakeholders that the necessary security arrangements had been made and there was no need to panic.
Trading will resume as usual from 10am and continue till 2pm on Tuesday, he said.
‘We took the necessary steps as soon as we got the call from the DSE authorities. The RAB and police searched the bourse’s buildings, but found nothing,’ said Syed Selim Sajjad, officer-in-charge of Motijheel thana.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange scaled up security after hearing the news, said CSE chief executive officer AB Siddique.
A DSE senior official said, ‘The market survived a plunge as the bourse did not disclose the news of the bomb threat for the investors’ interest.’
The DSE general index gained 2.16 points, or 0.07 per cent, to finish at 2,952.63, while its blue chips index, DSE20, advanced by 10.22 points, or 0.42 per cent, to finish at 2,426.88.
Of the 251 issues traded in the DSE, 144 advanced, 103 declined and four remained unchanged.
Turnover at the DSE dropped to Tk 681.56 crore from the Sunday’s Tk 775.22 crore.
The CSE’s selective categories index lost 29.34 points, or 0.44 per cent, to close at 6,609.43, while its blue chips index, CSE30, shed 37.76 points, or 0.46 per cent, to finish at 8,153.29.
Of the 175 issues traded on the CSE’s floor, 89 posted gain, 82 dropped and four remained unchanged.
Turnover at the CSE, however, increased to Tk 127.13 crore from the Sunday’s Tk 96.60 crore.

Courtesy of NewAgebd