Ordinary Bangladeshis have been tempted into the stock market by higher returns Police have used batons and water cannons in clashes with angry investors in the capital of Bangladesh after the country’s stock market saw the biggest one-day fall in its 55-year history.
Trading on the Dhaka Stock Exchange index was halted after it fell by 660 points, or 9.25%, in less than an hour.
It follows losses of about 6.7% in trading on Sunday.
The benchmark index had climbed by 80% in 2010 but has lost more than 27% since early December.
Trading was also halted on the country’s other main index, the Chittagong Stock Exchange.
“There are up to 5,000 investors holding protests on the streets in front of the exchange building. Some of them have been violent,” police inspector Azizul Haq told the AFP news agency.
“They have started vandalising government property, which forced us to use batons against them.”
The BBC’s reporter in Bangladesh, Akbar Hossain, confirmed that the baton charging had taken place and that there were protesters on the streets.
The rising value of the stocks in recent years has attracted about three million small-scale or retail investors in Bangladesh, he added.
Shares have become a popular investment for ordinary people, often providing higher returns than bank deposits and savings.
However, regulators have also taken measures in recent weeks to limit the proportion of deposits that banks can invest into the stock market – after concerns that shares were overvalued.
The move forced big institutional investors to withdraw from the market, triggering panic among individual investors.
“Market insiders say small investors were looking for an exit point from the market through selling their shares,” our correspondent said.
Investors and police had also clashed in mid-December following a market slide.
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