Angry investors took to the streets of the Bangladeshi capital on Sunday after the stock exchange suffered another dramatic fall, the latest of a series of collapses that forced halts in trading several times last month. The benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange index shed 5.7 percent on Sunday, the first working day of the week in the overwhelmingly Muslim country, following a 2.5 percent slide on Thursday.
Hundreds of disgruntled investors demonstrated and chanted slogans outside the stock exchange building, halting traffic for several hours in the financial district, witnesses said. "I invested all my savings in the share markets, but have lost everything. Now I am a pauper," a sobbing small investor said.
Share prices nearly doubled in 2010, encouraging a stream of new investors to enter the markets, but have crumbled since late last year after the market regulator and the central bank took measures to calm trading, prompting frequent violent protests.
The number of individual investors has risen to 3.3 million from fewer than 500,000 in 2006. Many small investors took out large loans to invest in shares at a time when the weakness of the economy made shares look an attractive investment. "We are trying our best to bring back stability to the stock markets," Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said.
The government has ordered the listing of 26 state-owned companies in an effort to increase the supply of shares. The minister on Sunday asked the heads of these companies to list their shares within a short time or quit. But he did not specify a timeframe for the listing.
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