As hundreds of investors took to the streets in front of the Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday after the key index lost 40 points on the Dhaka bourse around 11am, police detained at least one investor.
Around 10 people were injured in a span of half an hour and then the police took the upper hand by charging batons on the protesting investors, who broke the windshields of a private car.
The Motijheel police station said no case was filed in this connection and they are yet to take any decision regarding the detainee, Shuvan Ahmed.
The protest, which was triggered by the five weeks of continuous slump in the market, prompted the stock market regulator to sit with the mer-
chant banks today, for the second time in two weeks.
"If required, we will even sit with the central bank, to bring back market stabilisation," said Farhad Ahmed, executive director of SEC.
Trading on the premier bourse started with an upward trend at 10am yesterday. The market started falling soon after 20 minutes of the onset of trade, and at around 1 lam, the key index of the DSE came down to a 14 months low at 2557 points with almost all share prices dropping. Finally, the DSE General Index rose by 32.55 points, or 1.25 percent, ending the day at 2616.57 points.
Witnesses said around two hundred investors took part in the protest, chanting slogans and demanding immediate steps to be taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The protesters demanded a halt to forced sales by the merchant banks, an increase in the margin loan ratio, a reduction in margin loan interest rate and formulation of policies for merchant banking activities.
They also demanded resignation of the chief executive officers of the merchant bank-ing wings of IDLC, LankaBangla and Prime Bank.
Talking to journalists after the incident, DSE Chief Executive Officer Salahuddin Ahmed Khan said Investors should not panic over the current downtrend in the market, he said. "Following the huge price correction, there are a « number of securities which are ’ now attractive for investment," he said.