Trading at the country's both bourses was suspended again Thursday following a stupendous fall in share prices -- 600 points in just five minutes from the start of the day's trading at 1.0 pm -- leading to violent protests by thousands of angry investors in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and at some other district headquarters.
Small investors have called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Sylhet for observance Sunday in protest against the continuous fall in stock prices in recent weeks.
The securities regulator, apparently, overwhelmed by the bizarre behaviour of the market, also suspended trading at both Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (SEC) on Sunday next.
The SEC said it would take decision on resumption of trading on Sunday.
Trading at both the country's bourses resumed at about 1:00pm in accordance with the regulator's earlier decision and the main market barometer, the DGEN, lost 600 points within five minutes, a record time in the history of the bourses.
However, according to the circuit breaker introduced by the SEC Wednesday last, the trading was to be automatically suspended with the fall of 225 points. But the circuit breaker did not work on the day since the DSE software was not capable of responding to the SEC circuit breaker in time.
The DSE said the market plunged 600 points while calculating the DGEN manually.
The CSE also witnessed a 795-point plunge in about 15 minutes after trading was resumed, prompting small investors to resort to violent protests.
As the capital market was shut for the second consecutive day on Thursday, the infuriated investors took to the streets demanding "immediate resignation" of the top bosses of DSE, SEC and Bangladesh Bank for their failure to bring about stability in the market.
The protestors vandalised several vehicles, ransacked a leading broker house and engaged in sporadic clashes with police that brought the activities of the capital's bustling financial hub Motijheel to a complete halt.
Vehicular movements around the commercial area was seriously disrupted for more than an hour as the demonstrators blockaded the road between Bangladesh Bank crossing and the DSE building, causing immense suffering to the commuters.
The law enforcers guarding the DSE building later dispersed the protestors charging batons and lobbing teargas shells. The angry investors pelted brickbats and other objects at the police.
The riot police also picked up at least 15 people from the spot for their alleged involvement in the violence.
Officer-in-charge of Motijheel Police Station Tofazzal Hossain said they detained 15 people for their alleged involvement in vandalism and violent activities.
"We shot several rounds of tear gas shells only to maintain law and order in the area. We'll not tolerate any trouble here," he said, adding that traffic movement resumed at about 2:20pm.
Angry investors also sought immediate intervention of the Prime Minister to help protect their investment, saying that the market will not bounce back without the exit of the officials responsible for taking the market to the current deplorable state.
"The handling the stock market affairs by the officials concerned has not been perfect. They are just incapable of dealing with the situation and they should be withdrawn immediately," a protestor said.
Another investor alleged that the top officials of DSE, CSE, Finance Ministry and Bangladesh Bank should be held responsible for the unprecedented fall in stock prices. "We want investment-friendly environment here."
Violent protests at several city points and elsewhere in the country were also reported.
Our Chittagong Correspondent report: Investors in the capital market Thursday demonstrated in front of the Chittagong Stock Exchange and put up road barricade on the Agrabad-Patenga road to protest the abnormal plunging of share price.
The police resorted to baton-charges to free the busy traffic and detained at least 10 people from around the CSE area.
The investors also handed a nine-point demand to the CSE authority that includes the resignations of Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Governor of the central bank.
Thursday's trading in the CSE started at 1.00 pm after suspension for about two hours but the trading halted within 15 minutes when the selective category index came down by 764 points.
By 1.30 pm several hundred investors came out with protest and demonstration and put up barricade on the main road at Agrabad, the commercial area near the CSE Building.
Our Rajshahi Correspondent adds: Agitated shareholders of seven trading houses in Rajshahi took out a procession and put barricades on Shaheb Bazaar areas of the city in protest against abnormal fall of share indexes on Thursday noon.
The protesters damaged several motor-vehicles.
However, police chased the protesters within half an hour and cleared the street.
Hartal in Sylhet called
UNB from Sylhet adds: Small investors called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Sylhet on Sunday to protest Thursday's abnormal fall in the share index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
Agitated investors tried to enter the residence of Finance Minister AMA Muhith in city's Dupadegi but police foiled their attempt.
Later, the agitators gathered in front of city's Al Mamra Shopping Mall and burnt old tiers and portfolios of shares of different companies on the street to manifest their anger.
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