Dhaka stocks fell on Tuesday as many of the investors went for sell-offs ahead of the High Court hearing of the writ petitions against the Securities and Exchange Commission rule of mandatory shareholding.
DGEN, the benchmark general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, lost 0.73 per cent, or 36.94 points, to close the day at 5,020.21 points.
Tuesday’s turnover increased to Tk 433.63 crore from that of Tk 348.44 crore on the day before.
Of the 266 issues traded on the day, 73 advanced, 170 declined and 23 remained unchanged.
Market operators said as the HC would hear two writ petitions today [Wednesday], many of the investors were fearful on Tuesday about the outcome of the hearing.
The writ petitions by some company directors against the SEC rule for directors to hold 2 per cent shares individually and 30 per cent share made many of the investors jittery.
‘Although the issue is arguable whether forceful share purchase by the directors would be positive for the market in the long run, it has become a public demand as many directors bagged huge profit by selling majority of their shares during market bubble,’ said a stockbroker.
‘So the investors are cautiously waiting for the HC verdict on the SEC directive,’ he said.
Meanwhile, a section of investors on Tuesday staged a street demonstration in front of the DSE building demanding HC verdict in favour of the SEC rule. They also announced to stage a sit-in programme in front of the High Court today.
The SEC on Tuesday formed an enquiry committee to probe into alleged insider trading by directors of Apex Tannery Ltd.
Dhaka Stock Exchange manager Sayed Mahamood Zubaer and senior executive Arifur Rahman were assigned to probe into the matter.
DSE sources said Apex Tannery director Hedayetullah recently applied to the DSE to receive 1,25,000 shares from his brother Md Shafayetullah as gift outside the trading system.
The DSE said that after the SEC rule of holding 2 per cent shares individually and 30 per cent jointly by the company directors on November 22, Shafayetullah purchased 1,73,000 shares of the company.
The bourse also said that the large amount of share buying by Shafayetullah was to facilitate his brother Hedayetullah.
-With The Daily Star input
