The High Court on Tuesday summarily rejected the petitions of the five brokerage houses and merchant banks against the Securities and Exchange Commission\u2019s decision to suspend their activities for a month for allegedly manipulating the capital market.
\nThe bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain\u00a0also hoped that the government would immediately form a \u2018high-power committee\u2019 to investigate and to identify the \u2018godfathers\u2019 and \u2018real culprits\u2019 behind last week\u2019s plunge of the Dhaka Stock Exchange\u2019s general index.
\nThe court also observed that it should not intervene in the SEC\u2019s ongoing probe to find out those individuals and organizations who were involved in market manipulation.
\nIt considered the irrational fall of share prices a national crisis and expressed the need for proper investigation into the repeated falls in the stock market which is a \u2018the crying need of the day\u2019.
\nAfter the order, attorney-general Mahbubey Alam told reporters, \u2018The investors, who opened beneficiary accounts in the suspended brokerage houses, can trade through the other brokerage houses by using their trade code.\u2019
\nThe five companies \u2014 Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd, Dhaka Bank Ltd, PFI Securities Ltd, Alliance Securities and Management Ltd and IIDFC Securities Ltd \u2014 on Monday filed separate writ petitions challenging the decision that the SEC took on January 20. They also sought a stay on the operation of the decision.
\nThe SEC suspended the operation of six companies, including the NCC Bank, after hearing allegations that they had aggressively passed sale orders on January 20 when the general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange plunged by 600 points in just five minutes of trading.
\nRokanuddin Mahmud, the counsel for Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd, told the court that the SEC, in connivance with other big sharks, had taken away a huge amount of money from the market in which the brokerage houses were not involved.
\n\u2018Brokerage house were bound to execute their clients\u2019 orders to sell their shares,\u2019 he added, and sought withdrawal of the SEC\u2019s decision for the \u2018greater interest of small investors\u2019.
\nM Zahir, who moved the other petition, argued that the SEC had suspended the activities of the four other brokerage house without citing any specific reason.
\nHe also argued that according to the law the SEC could not suspend any licence or the registrar of any brokerage house without a proper hearing.
\nThe attorney-general argued that the writ petitions were not maintainable as the suspension order is still pending since the brokerage houses have been called by the SEC to defend themselves.
\nDuring the hearing, attorney-general Mahbubey Alam told the court that the committee to investigate the manipulators, who siphoned off over Tk 600 crore from the capital market, is in the process of formation. He also said that the SEC had already issued notices to the brokerage houses to tell their side of the story.
\nMahbubey Alam said the court should not interfere as the process to form an investigation committee was underway.
\n\u2018The present market situation, including the allegation against the brokerage houses, is being investigated by the SEC and the petitioners are free to come to the court if they become aggrieved by SEC\u2019s final decision,\u2019 he told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Via: New Age<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The High Court on Tuesday summarily rejected the petitions of the five brokerage houses and merchant banks against the Securities and Exchange Commission\u2019s decision to suspend their activities for a month for allegedly manipulating the capital market. The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[479,815],"yoast_head":"\n