BSEC forms committee to identify stock market rumour-mongers
The committee has ten working days to complete its investigation and submit findings to the BSEC.
The securities regulator has put together a team to find out individuals who are spreading false information about the stock market through social media and other means.
The three-member inquiry committee has the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Additional Director Md Faruque Hossain as the team leader, and Md Tahsin Ahmed, manager at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), and Md Mahmudur Rahman, senior executive at the DSE as other members.
The committee has ten working days to complete its investigation and submit findings to the BSEC.
BSEC sources said the market has experienced high volatility in recent weeks. Some individuals are trying to disrupt its stability by creating panic among investors.
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And the panic is driving the general investors to sell their holdings at a loss, according to BSEC sources.
They also said that many brokerage house officials advised their authorisers to be cautious about the margin loans and beneficiary owners (BO) accounts as the market may see a downturn because of these rumour spreaders.
On various digital platforms, rumours have been circulating about the floor price removal, BSEC chairman's resignation, institutional investors selling shares, and other issues related to economic crisis and political matters.
Earlier, BSEC Chairman Professor Shibli Rubayat-ul-Islam said rumours about floor price removal are affecting the stock market.
"One day the market is stable, later on the same day rumours about floor price being lifted are buzzing on social media. And the rumours are spread in such a way that general investors eventually fall for these," he added.
This July, the DSE noticed various rumours about the stock market being spread on social media groups and Facebook pages.
Last year in May, the Detective Branch of police arrested a man named Md Mahbubur Rahman for spreading rumours about the stock market through Facebook.
Mahbubur, an employee of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, was arrested based on a general diary filed in December 2021 by the BSEC at Sher-E-Bangla Nagar police station.
On 19 December last year, in a post on a Facebook page titled "Share Bazar 2021", he wrote "Everybody, leave the stock market after selling whatever shares you have. The index will fall to 5,600. I am not saying this out of panic, this is reality."
According to BSEC's general diary, Mahbubur had been deceiving general investors by luring them with false information and rumours through the Facebook page.
Last year, the BSEC set up a "Social Media Monitoring Cell" to identify those who spread rumours about the stock market through various social media including Facebook and WhatsApp.
The BSEC has been working closely with the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission and the Bangladesh Computer Council's Digital Security Agency to control rumours regarding the stock market.
This March, a Dhaka court remanded a stock investor named Moinuddin Tamim for one day in a case filed under the Digital Security Act for misleading investors by spreading false information and rumours about the capital market on social media.
