By IANS,
Dhaka : Stock exchanges in Bangladesh were forced to close down for the day Monday after share prices registered their biggest fall ever and investors took to the streets.
Angry investors vandalised some vehicles and set fire to tyres as they demonstrated in Motijheel area in the heart of the national capital.
Police beat up at least four journalists and picked up an investor from near the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) building.
The market regulators, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), took the decision as the slumping stock prices broke Sunday’s record when it suffered the biggest fall in its 55-year history.
Authorities closed the trading at Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges around noon, Star Online, website of The Daily Star, reported.
The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSE General (DGEN) Index, slumped by 660 points and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Index 914 points.
The SEC convened an emergency meeting with merchant bankers and institutional stockbrokers to decide its next course of action to save the market.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed her finance adviser, governor of Bangladesh Bank and chairman of SEC to take measures immediately to stabilise the present downfall in the stock market, ATN Bangla TV news channel reported.
In Chittagong, the investors brought out processions from different parts of the principal port city.
A.K.M. Shahroze Alam, CSE manager (market development), told The Daily Star that they also stopped trading at the instruction from the regulators.
“Today’s market has been halted as per SEC’s order, it will be resumed after further announcement,” reads a notice on DSE website.
Resuming the day’s trading with 7,135 in the index, the DGEN gained some points to reach 7,153 within a few minutes before starting the fall.
The CSE suffered even a bigger blow in terms of fall in the index, recording a 914-point slump to hit 12,381, which is a 6.8 percent decline.