Staff Reporter :
Retail investors took to the street for the third consecutive day on Wednesday amid continued fall in share prices that helped vanish large capital from the markets.
They staged demonstration outside the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), the country’s prime bourse, demanding resignation of the BSEC (Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) boss for his inaction to prevent the market fall.
Analysts say that poor corporate earnings, financial market woes and confidence crisis triggered the market fall.
The DSE lost over Tk 17,000 crore in market capitalization last month or 4.29 per cent owing to the unabated fall in share prices caused by sell off pressures.
The DSE benchmark index, DSEX, fell 231 points last month (March), according to an official statistics.
The prime bourse also extended it losing streak for the tenth straight week that ended on last Thursday. The trend further moved on Wednesday when the benchmark DSE index, DSEX, lost 57 points or 1.07 per cent closing at 5261.60 points.
The benchmark index of the premier bourse, DSEX, shed 53 points on Tuesday over the previous day and closed at 5318.75 points, the lowest since December 24, 2018.
“Weak earnings by large cap companies and financial sector crisis led the market fall,” Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, a former adviser to the caretaker government, told The New Nation yesterday.
He said, the ongoing banking sector’s crisis has created liquidity crisis in the financial market leading to an adverse impact in the capital market. This also ousted the institutional investors from stocks buyback.
“The private sector credit growth hit a 53-month low in February due to the ongoing liquidity crisis,” mentioned Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam.
The former BSEC chairman also said that in fact, a confidence crisis griped the investors forcing them to sell off shares to avoid losses. It leads to share prices down.
When asked, he said, ” It is hard to assertion from outside whether the share prices is going down through manipulation or not. The BSEC and DSE should look into the matter and work jointly to prevent the market from further fall.”
Terming the current market trend ‘normal,’ President of DSE Brokers Association Md Shakil Rizvi said, “The market is going through price correction.”
As to whether the ongoing market movement was ‘artificial’, he said, “Artificial market movement could not sustain for a long period. It may be possible for a few hours or two to three days. So, in my mind, the current market trend is normal and the investors should remain calm for the best return in the onset of a rising market.”
