The benchmark general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DGEN, fell hard to 4,695.57 points, losing 3.46 per cent, or 168.72 points, on the day.
The Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges suspended trading on Tuesday to avoid any adverse impact of the government’s announcement made on Monday.
The government intensified the confusion by issuing a circular that ordered civil servants to refrain from investing in the capital market and then cancelling the order within a few hours, said experts.
The public administration ministry through a gazette notification on Wednesday evening ruled that civil servants, as per the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1979, could not invest in the securities market that fluctuated frequently.
Securities and Exchange Commission chairman M Khairul Hossain in a hurriedly called press briefing on Wednesday morning said the cabinet in its meeting on Monday took no such decision barring government employees from investing in stocks.
Investors said the SEC chief’s comment had deepened the confusion further as the prime minister’s press
secretary on Monday said an official order would be issued in this regard soon.
The DSE opened trading on Wednesday half an hour late, at 11:00am, as the bourse authorities were awaiting the capital market regulator’s response to the government move.
The area around the DSE building turned into a battle zone at around 11:35am, with angry investors setting fire to electric cables of the building to disrupt the operation of the bourse’s trading server.
They demanded immediate suspension of trade until the government withdrew the ban slapped on civil servants investing in stocks.
The police and the DSE staff tried to extinguish the fire but, at that point, the demonstrators locked in a clash with them. The demonstrators hurled brickbats at the police and scuffled with the DSE staff. The police charged the investors with truncheons and rescued the DSE staff.
The situation calmed down a little after the fire was put off. Several hundred investors staged a noisy demonstration on the road section between Shapla Square and Ittefaq crossing, bringing the traffic to a standstill.
The demonstrators brought out several processions that paraded the road from the Bangladesh Bank headquarters to the DSE building.
Investors in the demo demanded resignation of the prime minister and other policymakers including the finance minister, central bank governor, National Board of Revenue chairman, and SEC chief.
Investors pelted brickbats at the BB building from a procession that reached near the BB headquarters at around 1:30pm. The police dispersed the procession by charging them with batons and arrested two investors on the spot.
The investors called off the demonstrations at around 5:00pm, threatening to launch a tougher programme today, if their demand was not met.
Investors of the CSE also staged demonstrations blocking the Airport Road by setting fire to tyres, reports the Chittagong bureau of New Age.
The demonstrators, under the banner of Investors’ Forum of Chittagong, thronged the Airport Road in front of the CSE building, continued with chanting slogans, and held a rally to press their demands home.
Market experts blamed the short-sighted and uncoordinated regulatory policies that came one after another intensified the stock market crisis.
Mahmood Osman Imam, a finance teacher at Dhaka University, told New Age that Wednesday’s situation demonstrated in details the government’s policy inconsistency.
‘It’s not acceptable at all. Government policies are not meant to be changed every minute,’ he said.
a said some vested quarters perhaps tried to mislead the government and the top policymakers apparently failed to identify it.
‘So, it also became clear that the cabinet on Monday indeed took such a decision,’ he said, adding that, ‘In such a situation, it naturally would be hard for the investors to keep their nerves.’
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