A section of angry investors took to the street on Sunday demanding resignation of finance minister AMA Muhith as the share prices at the Dhaka Stock Exchange tumbled on the day amid volatile trading and panic-driven sell-offs by nervous investors.
The benchmark general index of the burse, or DGEN, on Sunday fell by 59.35 points, or 0.97 per cent, to close at 6017.95 points, as the latest round of liquidity crisis affected the investors, many of whom had already been in losses in last eight months’ volatility in the capital market.
Out of the total 253 issues traded on the day, 208 issues fell heavily while only 31 advanced and 14 remained unchanged.
The DGEN fell in five trading days, out of a total of six days after trading resumed following the Eid vacations.
The price index of the premier bourse rose on Wednesday in an unusual late surge after hovering in ne gative territory during most part of the day.
Being discouraged by frequent fall in share prices, many of the general investors on Sunday went for panic-driven sell-offs as they were uncertain about the sustainability of the market while most of the institutional investors remained inactive, market operators said.
The turnover of DSE slightly increased to Tk 283.74 crore from Tk 241 crore on Thursday, but still remained well below the expected turnover of around Tk 1,000-Tk 1,500 crore, they said.
A section of angry investors came out from different brokerage houses at around 2:30pm to protest the relentless fall of the DGEN and formed a human chain in front of the DSE building at Motijheel.
Branding the finance minister AMA Muhith as the ‘leader of gamblers’, they demanded his resignation.
They alleged that the finance minister’s controversial comments about the market pushed lakhs of investors in a tight corner as they had lost most parts of their capital.
They also blamed Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman for the latest round of volatility in the capital market and urged prime minister Sheikh Hasina to remove Atiur.
The acute liquidity crisis had hit the Dhaka stocks throughout the last week and continued till the first trading day of this week as institutional investors mostly sat on the fence, with the commercial banks being discouraged by the policy change by the central bank and the merchant banks negotiating with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the stiff compliance requirements.
A DSE stockbroker told New Age that large investors like banks and non-bank financial institutes were reluctant in investing in the capital market fearing that the central bank might change its rule regarding the banks exposure in the capital market, squeezing the money supply in the market.
‘The higher interest rate that the banks are getting by lending money to their clients also discouraged many of the banks to invest in the capital market,’ he said, adding that the BB’s latest repo rate hike also discouraged banks to invest in the capital market.
He said that the government must infuse confidence among institutional as well as general investors as soon as possible to avoid a crash of the market.
Courtesy of New Age
