Angry investors from different brokerage houses descended on the busy road in front of the DSE building, halting traffic movement at around 12:30 pm after the general index of the DSE, or DGEN, fell by around 138 points in one and a half hours after the day's trading began at 11:00am.
The noisy crowds of investors set fire on paper and wooden boxes on the road and threw brickbats at different buildings on both sides of the road in downtown Motijheel, witnesses said.
The investors also chanted slogans against finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Ziaul Haque Khandkar and DSE president Shakil Rizvi and demanded their resignation blaming them for the current spell of plunges in the DSE share prices.
They blamed Muhith for his continuous 'contradictory comments' on the situation of the market and his delay in making public the probe report on January's stock market debacle.
Police, however, dispersed the agitating investors by charging baton and chasing them to through different lanes and alleys in busy Motijheel area. Vehicular movement became normal again at around 1:30pm.
Because of heavy presence of police, investors left the area while the DSE general index slumped to one and a half month low to close at 5,863.97 points, losing 212 points on the day.
The authorities deployed huge contingents of police in the area before the start of the trading sensing untoward incidents as anger was brewing among the investors for the last few days because of heavy slides in share prices after a government-formed investigation committee on April 7 submitted a probe report to Muhith on January's stock market debacle.
Since the probe committee, headed by Krishi Bank chairman Khandkar Ibrahim Khaled, submitted the probe report, the DGEN lost 676.63 points till Monday as investors became panicked because of continuous rumours surrounding the content of the probe report and possible government action. The DGEN was at 6,540 points on April 7.
The probe report named a number of large investors for their alleged involvement in the share market scam and a rumour spread that the large investors would force the market into a negative zone to create pressure on the government so that no action would be taken against them. Partial contents of the report were published by different newspapers.
Although the finance minister earlier said that he would make the report public and announce the government's course of action by seven days, the report is yet to be made public, giving opportunity a section of people to spread further rumours.
Abdul Matin, a protesting investor, told New Age that the finance minister had created a mystery by not publishing the report and trying to save the culprits. 'He [Muhith] is responsible for the current market slide. We are losing every thing,' he said.
Taib Ali, another investor, said that the continuous fall in share prices had given chances to the culprits to buy shares at lower prices. 'The market is still under their [suspected manipulators] control. What action the finance minister will take against them? They are roaming around with him,' he said.
Investors said that they had lost almost 30 percent of their capital in the latest slumps.
'We had been in heavy losses before the latest slump because of heavy plunges in January-March. Now our losses are compounding every day,' said Ashraf Hossain, another investor.
He said, 'The finance minister on Sunday claimed that the market was normal. His comments about the market are rubbish. He should not say anything about the market,' said an angry Ashraf.
Investors earlier also blamed Muhith, SEC chairman, BB governor and DSE president for the collapse of the market in January-March, when the DGEN came down to around 5,200 points in February from 8,900 points in December, 2010.
Source: New Age
