Stocks wobble over contradictory statements of market regulators

Equity indices of both the stock exchanges witnessed a volatile session in the first hour of trading on Thursday over the securities and money market regulators' contradicting statements regarding a recent meeting.

On Wednesday, the Bangladesh Bank denied statements made by a Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) representative to the media regarding the outcome of a recent meeting between the two regulatory bodies.

The denial came after BSEC Commissioner Dr Shaikh Shamsuddin Ahmed told reporters on Tuesday that the central bank had agreed upon the stock market regulator's proposals regarding banks' capital market exposure calculation in compliance with corporate governance code and banks' dividend pay-out at the meeting held earlier on the day.

In a press statement on Wednesday evening, the central bank said no such decisions were made in its meeting with the BSEC.

However, riding on the BSEC commissioner's briefing, the key index DSEX of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) jumped 143 points on Wednesday.

DSEX today felt the heat of the contradicting statements by losing over 80 points and going down below the 6,800-mark in the first half-hour of trading.

Meanwhile, a few big investors poured in money to turn the index around from a potentially massive fall.

The effort, however, was not enough to stop the falling trend as the broad index declined 16 points to settle at 6,830 till 11am.

The benchmark index CASPI at port city bourse Chittagong Stock also lost 64 points to close at 19,933 till 11 am on Thursday.