Staff Reporter :
In the last 10 years, a weak initial public offering (IPO) market worth Tk 650 crore have come in the stock market of the country. But among these, the number of good companies is very limited.
During this period the number of investors has halved and the number of active investors has decreased significantly, said Mominul Islam, chairman of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
He made this remark while speaking at a press conference on ‘Present Situation of Stock Market and Way Forward’ at Dhaka Club yesterday.
The capital market was neglected, and even stakeholders failed to hold a single meeting for past 15 years to solve the problems and make policies for turning it sustainable as a source of investment, he added.
He said, “The capital market has contracted drastically, failing to play the role it was supposed to play in the financial sector. The irregularities and inefficiency we have nurtured for a long time have kept the capital market from being positive.”
The DSE chairman said, “In the last 10 years, a weak IPO market worth Tk 650 crore has come. Good companies are coming in a very few. The number of investors in the market has come down by half in the period. There are even fewer active investors.”
He highlighted that one of the units to measure the quality of the capital market is the amount of foreign investment. Currently, the amount of foreign investment has come down to below 1.0 percent.
Although the amount of corporate bonds is shown to be one percent, in reality, it is not more than 0.51 percent. New IPOs, corporate bonds, and mutual funds are the new priority in the market, he pointed out.
The capital market will hold the position of leading and coordinating skilled and trained manpower that will be needed to take the DSE forward.
“We are recruiting manpower with full leadership qualities. We hope that the confidence in the market will be better than before, and investors will come back again.
IT security audit is very important. We are revitalizing the DSE website, especially working to digitize the IPO. The bond market is also a management problem, we are working in coordination with the BSEC,” added the DSE chief.
In response to a question, he said, “If the protection of DSE is legal, we will be able to work independently. We do not want CCBL to exist. BSEC, DSE, and CCBL will be respected and are working on this. We give importance to efficiency in recruiting manpower.”
Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Chairman AKM Habibur Rahman said, “The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) are not trying to impose anything on us. We are working cooperatively.”
