Finance Minister’s admission not enough, losers must get compensation

THE new Finance Minister is also seen naïve in dealing with the flawless recession of the bourses. On Sunday, AHM Mustafa Kamal told Parliament that the government doesn’t have full control over the share market. We hail his true statement on share market but he didn’t mention whether the control is necessary or not to establish. Share market investors were in long patience for near a decade anticipating a bullish trend as except some control mechanism the share market shows bearish in the years.
In his speech, the Finance Minister said the reflection of the stronger economy was seen in the capital market first. The economic advancement will be stopped if the government cannot bring the share market under control. Finance Minister also assured that the government would do whatever is needed to run the capital market strongly as the capital market and economy are interwoven and integrated.
Protests of investors in front of the Dhaka Stock Exchange building have become usual in the years as they incur heavy losses due to the market mechanism by a vested quarter. In the two calamitous market crashes: one in 1996 and the other in 2010 market manipulators lured naive investors who were hoping to make easy money. The incidents happened during the Awami League government, but not a single manipulator was arrested.
On the other hand, the idea of long-term investing after a thorough assessment of a company’s health is relegated to the backseat. Speculation became the mantra of stock investing. So, a crash was inevitable. The ramifications were widespread: Massive amounts of losses in household wealth, bankruptcies and unemployment that triggered huge waves of social discontent. Unscrupulous manipulators or gamblers got their way while the innocent suffered.
We do believe the government should set some technical switches to control the share markets and restore the lost confidence of the investors to reorient the economy on the right track.