Confidence that matters

A few days ago some of my friends asked me whether they should sell their stocks to minimize loss due to downward market. I advised them not to do so; but they defied my advice and sold their shares in order to buy stocks at a lower price. But immediately the market made an upward leap, and my friends did not get chance to buy stocks at lower price. What does really make the market to move upward actually? Others may disagree, but I believe it is confidence that matters most. When the news came that ICB is going to create a fund of fifty billion taka, general people got back their confidence, thinking that, it would stabilize the market. But where is the fund? It is yet to be created and investment is far away. But a single news created immense influence on the minds if the investors. Almost empty broker houses now become busy with hopeful investors, mostly small investors. People want to invest money in places where they can gain profit. Lack of infrastructure, corruption, poor energy supply and red tapes make it very difficult to encourage a person in making investment in industries. So where should a person invest his money? Yes, capital market gives the opportunity to invest money. People with lot of idle money come to this market to play game, and we, the people with small savings also come to this market to maximize our money dreaming for better living standard. A section of the intellectuals started to call the market "casino" or "gambling place" and many more funny things, which destroyed the confidence of general investors. Why the so called intellectuals did this which made the investors looser? I don't know whether they got any benefit from making stupid remarks but small investors with margin loan suffered huge loss. We have learnt from our parents and teachers from childhood that we should try to help others, and should never do harm to others. By destroying confidence of the small investors, the so called market Scholars just destroyed small savings. We need to think carefully before uttering any word. Capital market has contribution in the country's economy. More organized capital market will help attracting people with savings that can be utilized in industrialization. Regulatory authority should take necessary measures to develop investors' confidence so that more savings come to this market. Fakhruddin Ahmed E-mail : fakhruddin.ahmed@yahoo.com