Ministry asks BSEC for actions

The finance ministry has asked the securities regulator to gear up the monitoring and tighten rules to prevent manipulations, if any, in the stock market.

On December 15, the ministry wrote to the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) to strictly enforce the securities rules related to the listing, delisting, suspicious trading, speculation, coordination, and financial literacy.

The regulator was asked to remain alert about the newly listed companies. “Strengthen monitoring so that no companies cannot enter or exit the capital market illegally,” said the letter.

The share trading of the companies that are not in production should be scanned, it said.

Suspicious transactions of companies should be brought under stringent monitoring and necessary action needs to be taken as per the securities rules, said the letter.

The regulator was also asked to keep vigilance at the manipulators so they cannot influence the market and strengthen coordination with the relevant agencies.

The finance ministry also suggested speeding up the financial literacy programme to raise awareness among the investors and introduce capital market concepts to future generations.

“We’ve received the letter and started to work accordingly,” BSEC spokesperson Mohammad Rezaul Karim told The Business Post.

The relevant departments have been asked to follow the suggestions given by the ministry, he said.

Recently, the tussle between the Bangladesh Bank and BSEC created destabilisation in the market.

The stock markets suffered from the persistent row between the Bangladesh Bank and the BSEC over four issues.

The issues are unclaimed dividends, bank’s stock market exposure, bond exposure, and dividend disbursements by the loss-making banks and NBFIs.

DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, declined 631 points in the last two months.

The financial literacy program was started in 2016 under the direction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Later, the Bangladesh Academy for Securities Market (BASM) was established to carry out the literacy programme.

Apart from the BASM, the Bangladesh Institute of Capital Market (BICM) and a BSEC department are working on the development of the capital market.