Editorial
Black money in share market unacceptable
People have money to buy shares
It is heartening that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had held a meeting with the stakeholders to discuss the share market situation. The market has been on a plunge since it hit the top some 11 months ago. Timely warnings from various quarters, including this newspaper, that things are not boding well for the market fell on deaf ears. And finally the overheated market crashed. Since then it did not find enough strength to stand on its feet. Meantime, millions of investors, mostly small, suffered.
The prime minister's meeting could have brought some hope in us. But it has rather made us worried for various reasons. As the reports in newspapers indicate, the meeting identified dearth of funds as the main reason for the market torpor. That is a wrong diagnosis. Unfortunately, the meeting failed to distinguish between cause and effect. That money is not coming to the market is a manifestation of effect. The cause is lack of confidence.
And why is there no confidence? The answer is clear. Those known faces, who are suspected to be behind the manipulation and whose names came up in the investigation report, are still running the show. The recommendations of the probe committee by Khandokar Ibrahim Khaled were mostly ignored. How do you then expect confidence to return?
The other worrying thing that was decided at the prime minister's meeting was to again allow black money into the market. As everyone knows, it was this decision to allow unchecked black money into the market that led to the market manipulation. And now we are again making the same decision. One may ask who would benefit from it ? Such invitation of black money in the market is simply unacceptable. As we reported earlier, the latest initial public offerings show they have been oversubscribed and new BO accounts have been opened. So people still have money to buy shares. Provided they find the confidence.
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