Bourse : émeute à Dhaka – 19 janvier 2011

Street clashes as Bangladesh shares dive again

AFP

19 01 2011

DHAKA — Thousands of investors clashed with police in Dhaka on Wednesday after the Bangladesh stock market saw another sharp fall and triggered an automatic halt in trading.

Protesters threw bricks at office windows, smashed up vehicles and blocked roads in the commercial heart of the capital as the market slid for the fifth day in a row.

The benchmark DGEN share index rose 80 percent in 2010 but has been highly volatile since peaking on December 5 at a record 8,918.15 points. It has since fallen 22.5 percent, with each new slide triggering protests.

Trading was halted at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Wednesday when a new circuit breaker was activated as the index fell more than 225 points, or 3.2 percent, in just 86 minutes.

The market opened late as regulators implemented the new system, but shares still went into a free-fall.

« Up to 4,000 investors have been protesting in front of the DSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission. They have damaged cars and hurled bricks at police and vehicles, » local police chief Tofazzal Hossain told AFP. Read more…

Police, investors clash after another trading halt in Bangladesh stocks

reuters.com

DHAKA | Wed Jan 19, 2011

DHAKA Jan 19 (Reuters) – Bangladesh police clashed with hundreds of small-time investors who vandalised cars and took to the streets to protest against a trading halt at the country’s stock exchanges on Wednesday, the third stoppage this month.

Police used batons to disperse the crowds that had gathered around the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges, accusing the stock exchange authorities of trying to manipulate prices. Some people broke into cars parked outside the stock exchanges and tried to set them ablaze.

The clashes broke out after the stock market regulator imposed a circuit breaker on the Dhaka Stock Exchange General Index , the latest official measure aimed at calming a market that has been volatile for weeks. Read more…