A bubble and market in name only

It is common knowledge that the stock market in Bangladesh was super-heated. It was an artificial market, not reflecting the sordid realities. Shares, the value of which should not go well below their primary price offered in view of the fact that the enterprises that such stocks represented in some cases stopped business or production even years ago, had showed abnormally high values. Compared to the market capitalisation, the number of shares has also been far less. Thus, the capital market in Bangladesh was due for major corrections. That this did not happen earlier and even any feeble attempt to do the same came across to so much opposition, pointed to the fact that this was anything but a share market which is not following proper rules of the game. Thus, it is a bubble and a share market in name only. The bubble has now bust and since that has now happened, hundreds of thousands of small investors have been taking to the streets to ventilate their wrath. It is time for all concerned to drive home the message to such investors that the health of the national economy cannot be put into jeopardy just for them to play out their 'gambling' instincts in the market. Kishwar Ahmed Baridhara, Dhaka