SEC chief sees bright time for stocks

Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, third from left, speaks at a meeting with the members of Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday. Photo: DSE

The country's capital market will surely witness significant growth over the next two years irrespective of the nature of the next elected government, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman said yesterday.
Floatation and off-loading of shares by the companies from the telecom and other sectors on expectations that the next government will be market-friendly, and introduction of book-building, a modern pricing method for IPO, will definitely contribute to expected growth and depth of the market, Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi said.
Siddiqi was speaking at a discussion between the SEC and members of Dhaka Stock Exchange in the DSE Members' Club.
Chaired by DSE President Abdul Haque, the discussion was attended by SEC Member Mansur Alam and Executive Director Farhad Ahmed, DSE Senior Vice-president Saiful Islam and Chief Executive Officer Salahuddin Ahmed Khan.
The SEC sat with DSE members yesterday in a second move in as many days to keep the market stable. Earlier on Sunday, the SEC held a meeting with merchant bankers and DSE management to discuss the market situation.
“Draft of book-building method will be published in the national dailies at the end of this month,” he said hoping that the alternative mechanism of IPO pricing will attract more good companies to list their enterprises on the stock exchanges.
Grameenphone will list on the stock market in next three to four months followed by other companies in the telecom sector, the SEC chief said.
He said amendments and necessary corrections in the rules will be made to make the existing dysfunctional merchant banks active. Efforts are also under process to inject professionalism and institutional efficiency into the merchant banking activities, he said.
Emphasising awareness programmes for the investors, the stock market regulator said most of the investors are not well aware of the fundamentals and basic issues of companies, but it is necessary to make them aware.
The key index of the DSE closed higher yesterday. The DSE General Index rose 48.12 points, or 1.94 percent, to 2,517.04 points. The DSE All Share Price Index gained 40.53 points, or 1.98 percent, to 2,080.73 points.