Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Tuesday said stability would return to the capital market in this week after the government completed implementing the decisions taken towards that end.
‘Normalcy would return after implementation of the decisions we have taken. It might take a little time… [But] It’s not wise to change decisions repeatedly,’ he told the media after a meeting with tea planters at his office.
Muhith said some institutional investors were not keeping their words. ‘Share prices of some companies fell and those companies are not buying their own shares,’ he noted.
He advised the investors to exercise restraint until the government’s decisions were implemented.
‘The investors often do not think before taking decisions. Some of them are selling off stocks out of panic. It is not right. I do not support the notion that it is always good when share prices rise and bad when they fall,’ he said.
The minister did not see any negative effect of increasing the cash reserve ratio on the equities market. A number of positive things are also taking place in the market, he said, citing the announcement of dividend by Grameenphone and bonus shares as dividend by National Bank.
Muhith also said he had given instructions to carry out a review of the book-building system. ‘It is a good system but we failed to handle it properly. It often overprices shares unnecessarily. Some new things should be incorporated in it,’ he remarked.
About the alleged aggressive selling on January 20 by the six brokerage houses suspended by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Muhith said investigations were on in this connection but the brokerages were now allowed to operate during the investigations. ‘They will be punished if the investigations find them guilty,’ he said.
