Regulator asks DSE to explain technical failure
The stockmarket regulator yesterday asked Dhaka Stock Exchange to explain the technical breakdown in the bourse's main engine that halted trade for almost two hours for the second day.
“The regulator sat with the Dhaka bourse to hear from them why and how the malfunction took place for two days in a row,” said Saifur Rahman, spokesman for Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The commission also directed the DSE to immediately call in the software vendor's professionals and get a permanent solution to the technical failure.”
The regulator further asked the bourse to promptly set up a strong technical team after appointing a chief technology officer, said Rahman, also an executive director of BSEC.
The post of CTO at the Dhaka bourse has remained vacant for the past year, and the management is running its IT department with junior executives.
The latest incidents raised question over the management's competency in running and maintaining the matching engine, the main trading server. The reasons for the malfunction are also yet to be identified, and no responsible official from the DSE wanted to make comments on the issue.
Stock trading resumed at 12:15pm and continued until 4:15pm; share transactions usually take place between 10:30am and 2:30pm every working day.
The problem first arose on Sunday after the bourse's main engine failed to process the trading information uploaded by TREC (trading right entitlement certificate) to start the day. TREC holders are required to upload information on their clients and portfolios everyday prior to the beginning of share transactions.
Though the DSE officials, with the help of the software vendor's professionals through online communication, could process the information for Sunday, the TREC holders faced the same problem yesterday as well.
NASDAQ OMX, the world's largest exchange company, provided the matching engine that was launched in December last year to ensure smooth share transactions, as the previous MSA-Plus software was a faulty one.
The glitch however could not mar market sentiments as investors brushed away the issue with the benchmark index hitting a two-and a half-month high, soon after opening. DSEX, the benchmark general index of the DSE, went up 130.39 points or 2.9 percent to finish the day at 4,615 points, the highest level since March 11.
“Investors might be anticipating further stability in the market as the government is coming up with capital market friendly proposals in the upcoming budget,” said LankaBangla Securities.
The day's turnover, another important indicator of the market, also jumped up 149 percent to Tk 855.78 crore on transactions of 21.52 crore shares and mutual fund units.
Gainers outnumbered losers 250 to 49, with 17 securities unchanged on the premier bourse.
Khulna Power Company dominated the turnover chart with 59.96 lakh shares worth Tk 45.84 crore changing hands, followed by United Power Generation and Distribution Company, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, AFC Agro Biotech and RAK Ceramics.
The seventh ICB Mutual Fund was the day's best performer, advancing 10 percent, while Shyampur Sugar Mills was the worst loser, slumping 5.97 percent.