Around 200 retail investors on Monday staged a sit-in and went on a hunger strike in front of the Dhaka Stock Exchange building, demanding immediate government action to stabilise the volatile capital market.
They, however, aborted the fast-unto-death programme after issuing a 24-hour ultimatum to the government for stabilising the market and meeting their demands.
The Dhaka stocks on the day, however, managed to inch up by 27.33 points thanks mainly to active participation of institutional investors, which succeeded to make the retail investors not to go for a binge on share-selling.
The general index of the bourse, or DGEN, clambered up by a mere 0.48 per cent to close the day at 5,638.80 points, after taking a 366-point plunge in the previous two trading days.
The trading on the bourse started at 11:00am in the same bearish mood as on Sunday and saw the DGEN make a 90-degree nosedive, hurtling down 200 points in the first 50 minutes.
Even before that, as the DGEN did a 120-point free fall by 11:15am, the general investors in a rage rushed out of the brokerage houses adjacent to the DSE building on the Motijheel thoroughfare. As on the previous day, they chanted slogans especially against finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, and DSE president Shakil Rizvi.
After half an hour, they staged a sit-in in front of the entrance to the DSE building and began a fast-unto-death programme under the banner of Bangladesh Share Market Oikkya Parishad.
The Parishad leaders distributed a leaflet containing a number demands to the government as well as suggested action for stabilising the capital market. The demands included resignation of the finance minister within seven days and restructuring the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2 weeks time.
The Parishad also demanded that the central bank should reduce the cash-reserve ratio and the statutory liquidity requirements of the commercial banks.
Another demand listed in the leaflet was for compelling the investors named by the probe committee as being involved in price manipulation leading to the January's stocks debacle to reinvest their ill-gotten profits in the share market.
They asked the government to compensate the investors who suffered losses in the crash and also to withdraw all cases filed against retail investors immediately.
Speakers at the demonstration said one of the retail investors, Rony Zahan of Tongi, had committed suicide on Sunday, unable to bear the anguish of his losses and frustration.
After the trading ended at 3:00pm, the demonstrating investors held a Gayebana Namaz-e-Janaza for Rony Zahan.
The police made the road from Shapla Square to Ittefaq Crossing off-limits to all vehicles while the investors had held the demonstration from 11:30am to 3:30pm to avoid any untoward incident. Although an investor was detained at around 12:00 noon for abusing the law-enforcers, he was later set free.
A DSE source said the newly launched Bangladesh Fund bought shares worth Tk 27 crore on the day. The turnover of the bourse on Monday dropped to Tk 426.60 crore from that of Tk 462.27 crore on Sunday.
Market analysts said the slight gain that the DSE maid on Monday meant no significant development.
Akter H Sannamat, a capital market analyst, said, 'The day's rise was a halt to the relentless fall of the DSE general index.'
The government and institutional investors have an important role to play to sustain the rebound, however weak it may seem to be, he said, adding that all the stakeholders, including the retail investors, should behave reasonably if they want the market get rid of volatility.
Source: New Age
