Thousands of angry investors vandalised cars, blocked roads around the country's main bourse and fought a violent battle with police following the collapse of the stockmarket yesterday.
Share trading stopped only 50 minutes into the opening of transactions, when prices went into free fall.
The regulator instructed the exchanges to suspend the trading after General Index of Dhaka Stock Exchange slumped by 660 points and Selective Categories Index of Chittagong Stock Exchange by 914 points.
It was the steepest singled-day fall in the bourses' history.
Dhaka-based retail investors attacked the office of the market regulator and staged demonstration in the bustling Motijheel area from Ittefaq crossing to Paltan crossing, Dilkusha area, Karwan Bazar and Mirpur.
The mob vandalised some vehicles and set fire to tyres and wooden furniture stuff as they demonstrated in Motijheel area in the capital.
Running battles between police and investors continued for hours.
Police fired tear gas and baton-charged to disperse the agitators who were throwing brickbats at them.
Some people were detained by law enforcers from Motijheel, but were later released.
Police even beat up at least four journalists near the DSE building. The journalists gathered there to cover the volatile share market.
Protests broke out elsewhere in the country. Demonstrators in Chittagong, Comilla, Bogra and Narsingdi also brought out processions and demonstrated in protest at price fall and market closure, report our correspondents.
The main opposition BNP expressed concern over the massive plunge of the capital market.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “Share market went into a nosedive in 1996 when the Awami League was in power. The market yesterday experienced record plunge in its history during the same government's tenure.”
He was addressing a press conference at the party chairperson's Gulshan office while other senior leaders were present.
They leaders demanded the government investigate whether “the money looted from the capital market were laundered abroad”.
However, stock trading resumes at 11:00am today and will continue on schedule, the authorities said.
The collapse prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bangladesh Bank to take a series of measures in a desperate effort to cheer up investor spirits.
As per the measures, the SEC increased margin loan ratio, withdrew the restriction on merchant banks' exposure to the stockmarket, allowed purchase of non-marginable securities using netting facilities and bring back 14 securities under public market trade instead of spot market trade.
And the central bank relaxed some restrictions on the commercial banks' investment exposure to the stockmarket and advised the banks not to sell shares for the time being now.
Yesterday's slump in share prices was even greater than the market crash in 1996 when the stocks plunged by highest six percent on a single day.
A fund manger seeking anonymity said, "It's a result of collective greed."
"Every investor is accusing the regulators of this situation, but no one blames him/herself for the greed or unjustified investment decision in an overheated market," he added.
A former finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam at a discussion said the SEC should have taken measures to cool down the share prices while the prices were on the rise.
Bangladesh Bank should also have taken the regulatory steps earlier, he said. "Around two month ago in an informal meeting, I pointed out to the governor to see whether the bank is diverting the credit into the non-productive sector," said Islam, also a former chairman of the SEC.
An asymmetric flow of information, high risk taking behaviour and irrational exuberance as well as pessimism were some of the main reasons of the price fall, said Islam.
Another former SEC chairman Faruk Ahmed Siddiqi at the discussion said the drastic fall of the capital market could be avoided if the SEC and Bangladesh Bank could have moved to correct the price in September.
DSE President Shakil Rizvi came down heavily on the institutional investors saying that they are not playing their due role.
"The institutional investors also become greedy along with retail investors," he said.
"Panic sales should be stopped first, and the government and the regulators should intervene in the market," said another fund manager.
Although a correction in share prices was expected any time in last one year following abnormal rise in the market, insiders see the current situation due to liquidity crisis.
The insiders said whatever the reasons behind the current downtrend are, the retail investors panicked; even the institutional investors felt the pressure for selling.
“Once we were encouraged to invest in the market. Now I lost almost everything I had,” said Mamun, a retail investor.
“Who will give my money back?”
Thousands like him are asking the same question. For now, Shakil Rizvi has only two words for Mamun and others.
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