Institutional investors should be key stocks traders: Salman F Rahman

Prime minister’s private industry and investment adviser Salman F Rahman, also vice-chairman of Bangladesh Export Import Company, speaks at a programme on the debut trading of BEXIMCO’s green Sukuk Al Istisna’a at the DSE office premises at Nikunj in Dhaka on Thursday. Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam, DSE chairman Md Eunusur Rahman and DSE managing director Tarique Amin Bhuiyan were present on the occasion. — New Age photo

The institutional investors should dominate trading activities in place of retail ones for reducing volatility on the country’s stock market, said Salman F Rahman, private industry and investment adviser to prime minister and vice-chairman of Bangladesh Export Import Company.

He made the comment at a programme on the debut trading of BEXIMCO’s green Sukuk Al Istisna’a at DSE’s office premises at Nikunj in Dhaka.Earlier on July 8, 2021, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission gave the final approval to BEXIMCO for issuing Tk 3,000 crore Shariah-compliant green Sukuk. On its debut trading day, prices of the Sukuk increased by 1 per cent to close at Tk 101 each.

Salman said that the country’s stock market has structural defects including that it is retail based one and participation of institutions in the market are very minimal. ‘Participation of institutional investors in matured markets is very high, but we see opposite on our market that results in significant volatility on the market,’ he said.

Brokerage houses should act as real institutions and adopt corporate culture to gain trust of the retail investors for managing their portfolios, he said. Another problem of the market is that it is an equity-based market where debt market is rarely visible, he said. ‘The BSEC is working to introduce various products on the market, but we need more innovative products like Sukuk to address banks’ interest rate sensitivity,’ Salman said.