The Dhaka Stock Exchange will launch a new trading system, replacing its 16-year old system, today that will allow lot-free share trading at the bourse.
‘As we were facing problems with the old trading system and the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission recommended introducing a new one, the bourse is going to launch the new trading system,’ said Swapan Kumar Bala, managing director of the DSE, at a press conference at the bourse’s office in the city.
The premier bourse, following the BSEC suggestion, on March 21 signed agreements with NASDAQ OMX, an American multinational financial services corporation, for purchasing a matching engine and with FlexTrade, a US-based multinational company, for order management system.
DSE directors Md Shakil Rizvi, Mohammad Shahjahan and Khwaja Ghulam Rasul were also present at the briefing.
Swapan said, ‘Despite the fact that there is a chance of facing some problems with something new, we are going to launch the system.’
The system is very much user friendly and mock trading was held in three phases to make authorised representatives familiar to it, he said.
According to the DSE board approval and the BSEC consent, each share of a company will be treated as tradable at the main trading board under the new system, he said.
Replying to a question about charges in the case of a single share transaction, Swapan said, ‘We have already studied the matter and the issue would not be a significant problem.’
‘If we observe significant number of single-share trading, we may waive the transaction charge,’ he said.
Under the old process, investors were supposed to trade shares in lots.
The composition of lot differs from company to company as 10 shares of some companies make a lot while it takes 50 shares for others.
Sometimes dividends given by companies make fraction of a lot and it becomes a hassle for investors to sell such shares at the odd-lot market at relatively lower prices.
Single-share trading under the new system may increase the number of shareholders of a listed company.
Asked about the hassles that may arise in holding annual general meeting and distributing annual report among the shareholders of the listed companies, Swapan said that as per the old rules there was no obligation to distribute financial report in the form of book, so there would be no complication in this connection under the new system either.
‘Besides, we have already talked to the listed companies regarding holding AGM with huge number of shareholders,’ Swapan said adding, ‘We are yet to find a solution to the problem.’
The new automated trading system of the bourse will facilitate trading of all short of financial products at the bourse, said the DSE MD.
The DSE at present facilitates trading of equities, mutual funds, debentures and bonds.
Under the old system, there was no scope for distinguishing debt and equity, but in the new system a trading board will be placed for the debt securities, Swapan said.
The bourse will also introduce mobile applications in April next year to facilitate investors to trade shares using their devices, he said.
Another DSE official said that under the new trading system indices would change based on each and every transaction which facility was absent in the old system.
Under the old system, indices of the bourse changed in five minutes interval based on share prices.
On the other hand, the new trading system of the bourse will not accept any order like short-selling and that will automatically reduce manipulative share trading to some extent, the DSE official said.
As the server of the bourse will preserve all the investors’ data, brokerage houses will be allowed to update investors’ fund position within a certain period of time (like 15 minutes) during the trading hours, he said.
Besides, upper ceiling and lower ceiling for sales order for certain scrips can be placed for indefinite period in the new trading system, the DSE official said.
He said sales and buy order ratio with number would be shown on the board that would give investors better view about investors’ attention to certain scrips.
Tabs can be opened as many as the users’ demand and the price of every scrip will be shown in graph with various types of analytical data, he said.
The new trading system, however, will bar investors from trading through different branches of a certain brokerage house for security purposes, he added.
The bourse is also working to launch exchange traded funds and some other derivative products keeping in mind the new trading system.
-With New Age input
