New platform on cards to boost capital market

Six associations related to the equity and money markets will form a new platform, Bangladesh Financial Market Forum, for the development of the economy.
The forum will primarily work for the stabilisation, expansion and vibrancy of the ailing capital market.
“Later more related associations will be the members of the forum, so it can also work for the growth of the economy,” Sheikh Kabir Hossain, president of Bangladesh Insurance Association (BIA).
He spoke at a press briefing yesterday where the announcement of forming the forum was made.
Initiated by the Brokers Association of Bangladesh, the six associations sat on the Dhaka Stock Exchange premises yesterday to discuss the remedies for the stockmarket.
Along with the BIA, five other members of the forum will be the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh, Brokers Association of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association, Bangladesh Leasing and Finance Companies Association, and Association of Asset Management Companies.
The forum will work for creating a mutual understanding between the money market and equity market, which is the need of the time, said Md Fayekuzzaman, president of the Association of Asset Management Companies. However, details of the forum which are yet to be finalised will be set in another meeting in the next one month.
Just after a couple of days' gains, stocks returned to the red again yesterday with DSEX, the benchmark general index of the premier bourse, sliding 48.79 points or 1.07 percent before closing at 4,509.28 points.
The day's turnover declined 19.9 percent to Tk 314.94 crore upon transaction of 6.46 crore shares and mutual fund units.
Almost all the major sectors declined in market capitalisation with the engineering sector taking the highest hit of 1.9 percent.
Losers beat the gainers, as 198 stocks declined, 76 declined and 32 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
At yesterday's meeting, the associations' leaders also recommended the central bank to extend the deadline for bringing down banks' investment exposure in the stockmarket, create a special refinancing fund at a soft interest rate for merchant banks and stockbrokers and redefine the calculation of market exposure. They also discussed how to increase the institutional participation in the secondary market.