Country's stock market that had received severe mauling in 2010 has been able to regain stability in the outgoing fiscal (2013-14) but not the desired level of buoyancy.
 The capital market regulator and the government initiated a number of measures to revamp the market but the investors continued to demonstrate a lukewarm attitude to the market, experts said. Â
They said 'inconsistent' regulatory and other policy measures have discouraged the individual and institutional investors to make large and medium scale investments.
According to them, the market has also failed to fulfil investors' expectation because of multiple reasons including political instability which played a key role behind the losses incurred by many listed companies.
"The regular investors make investment taking into cognisance the prospect of the market for at least six months. But the measures taken by the regulators concerned not being homogenous in nature could not fulfil investors' expectations," said a top broker on condition of anonymity.
He said under the prevailing market conditions, the possibility of malpractices in stock trading remains slim.
"Yet the day-to- day monitoring by the central bank and some ambiguities regarding the investments by institutional investors often have created panic in the market," the stock broker said.
As a result, the benchmark index of the premier bourse travelled between 4000 and 4800 points during the outgoing fiscal.
The benchmark index of DSE -- DSEX -- was 3,943.24 points on June 2, 2013.
On June 3, 2014 (Tuesday) the DSEX closed at 4,418.79 points, gaining 475.55 points or 12.05 per cent over the year. Â
The DSEX reached its peak at 4,845 points of the FY 2013-14 on February 6, 2014.
The DSEX, however, was above 4000-point mark in maximum trading sessions. Â
On June 2, 2013, the turnover on the DSE was Tk 4.76 billion. The highest turnover was recorded at Tk 8.89 billion on November 20, 2013. However, during most of the trading days turnover was between Tk 3.50 billion and Tk 4.0 billion.
On Tuesday last, the market capitalisation stood at Tk 2912.96 billion which was 20.05 per cent up from the first trading day of the FY 2013-14.
The shares of the listed banks used to be considered 'blue chips' in the capital market before the collapse of the market in 2010.
But investors are now lukewarm about investing in the listed stocks of financial institutions, largely because of their fears, on real or perceived grounds, about not getting appropriate returns on their investments, brokers said.
Some loan scams, mainly involving state-run banks, and their spill-over effects on the overall financial sector, have further compounded the problems, said another stock broker.
Out of 30 listed banks, the market prices of 43 per cent banks have been spinning around their face value over the outgoing FY. A couple of banks had their shares being quoted the face value.
The shares of ICB Islamic Bank and Premier Bank were traded at Tk 4.90 and Tk 9.70 respectively as of Wednesday.
The former chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi said the regulatory enforcement was not visible in many cases although some changes were brought in the existing rules.
"The enforcement on the part of the BSEC was not visible and transparent in many issues which ultimately drew criticisms for regulatory body. We have also not seen the results of many inquiries conducted by the BSEC," Mr Siddiqi told the FE.
According to him, the banks have failed to support the market because of a number of reasons.
"However, the market became comparatively stable during the outgoing FY. But until now some issues are abnormally priced," Mr Siddiqi added.
Echoing Mr Siddiqi, Md Moniruzzaman, managing director of the IDLC Investments, said, "The overall business activities were affected due to political instability. As a result, the earnings of the financial sectors dropped significantly,"
He said in the outgoing FY, the market mainly was dependent on the multinational and some local firms.
"The market would have gone down further had not the multinational companies performed exceptionally," Mr Moniruzzaman said.
Among all listed companies, the multinational showed steady performance and declared attractive dividends as their reserves and surplus were on the rise in the outgoing FY.
The cash dividends declared by the multinational companies were in range of 100 per cent to 500 per cent, whereas many local firms have failed to declare dividends above 10 per cent.
According to data available on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), 11 'A' category companies were shifted to 'Z' category group during the period between March 31, 2013 and May 4, 2014 as they failed to recommend any dividend.
On the other hand, the mutual funds failed to overcome the crisis even in FY 2013-14 despite having the option of issuing bonus shares and relaxation of the investment ceilings.
Out of 41 listed mutual funds, 27 are still being traded below the face value.
According to market insiders, another reason behind the volatility of the capital market is the stuck up of a large amount money, disbursed as margin loans.
According to the BSEC officials, the outstanding margin loans, provided by merchant banks and stock brokers, now stands at around Tk 140.0 billion. The amount was Tk 130.0 billion in September, 2013.
In the outgoing FY, the central bank disbursed the first instalment amounting to Tk 3.0 billion under the capital market re-financing scheme.
But the fund remained undisbursed for around nine months due to tough conditions set for the borrowers.
Recently, the conditions were relaxed and two-thirds of the fund has already been disbursed.
The investors who were affected during the stock market debacle occurred in December (2010)-January (2011) were also offered the 20 per cent quota in the initial public offerings (IPOs).
The demutualisation of the country's bourses has also been executed keeping provisions for induction of the majority number of independent directors to ensure the accountability in the activities of the exchanges.
In the FY 2013-14, the securities regulator approved the IPO proposals of 14 companies which raised funds worth around Tk 21.70 billion.
Some of the IPO approvals drew flak for the regulatory body as it ignored the stakeholders' opinion while giving consent to some issues.
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