Investors threaten tougher movement
A group of retail investors took to the streets yesterday demanding withdrawal of loan restrictions on mutual funds and retraction of the announcement of pulling out the funds having no maturity period from the market.
The investors, who have investment in mutual funds, staged demonstration in front of both Dhaka Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission under the banner of 'Share Market Retail Investors Forum'.
They also met SEC Chairman Ziaul Haque Khondker and placed their demands to him.
They said regulator's intervention led to a sharp decline in the prices of each and every mutual fund during the last few weeks that resulted in huge losses to them.
“If we now bear the losses caused by SEC's move, we would lose everything,” MA Bashar Dablu, the forum's convener, pointed out during the meeting with the SEC chief.
The lifting of SEC restrictions can save their capital, Dablu said.
The SEC chief assured the investors of considering their demands.
The market regulator on December 17 set new criteria for margin loans for mutual funds after about two months of suspension. The regulator said mutual funds must trade in a limited range to qualify for margin loans.
The funds that will trade 7.5 percent higher than their latest NAV (net asset value) will not qualify for the loans. It means if a mutual fund has Tk 100 in NAV per unit and trades only up to Tk 107.50 (7.5 percent higher than NAV), margin loans can be sanctioned for the fund.
Later on December 23, the SEC announced that mutual funds having no maturity period would have to pull out of the market by December 2011.
The decisions took a heavy toll on the mutual fund sector.
The agitated investors told journalists that they would go for tougher movement such as 'hunger strike unto death', if the SEC does not meet their demands.
“We will have no other way but going for hunger strike unto death,” Dablu said.
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