Trade turnover via DSE mobile app jumps 26pc in 2024 despite fewer users

Transactions through the DSE mobile app jumped more than 26 per cent year-on-year to Tk 214.3 billion in 2024, as tech savvy younger generations and professionals prefer to trade remotely.
Investors purchased securities worth Tk 108.67 billion and sold shares worth Tk 105.61 billion using the app in the just concluded calendar year.
According to the data of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), share transactions via mobile apps accounted for more than 14 percent of the total turnover of the prime bourse's main board of Tk 1.45 trillion.
The DSE mobile application gives subscribers the opportunity of real time trading experience from anywhere without physical presence at a brokerage house and without the involvement of authorised traders.
The app has some features, including buy or sell alerts, notifications, and portfolio status of the subscribers, which are not easily available in brokers' traditional services.
Md Saiful Islam, president of the DSE Brokers Association of Bangladesh, said middle-aged professionals also like to trade remotely through the app alongside young generations.
"The app helps investors make investment decisions by analysing the information given. That's why transactions through the app increased."
A decline in no of registered users
The number of registered users of the DSE app, however, dropped 7 per cent year-on-year to 30,433 in 2024 as the prime bourse imposed subscription free in July 2023 for new subscribers.
New users are to pay a monthly service charge of Tk 125, meaning they are paying Tk 1,500 per annum.
Investors, who used the app free of charge since its launch in 2016, also came under subscription fees in January 2024.
Some brokerage houses use their own order management systems. So, their clients do not need to pay any service charge to the prime bourse.
Service charge discouraged many from using the app.
Nazmul Alam, an equity investor of the Dhaka bourse, subscribed to the DSE mobile app in 2018, when the app was free of cost.
He stopped using the app in December 2023, a month before the imposition of the fee.
Mr Alam lamented that he had to pay Tk 450 a year for maintaining a beneficiary owner's (BO) account, while he endured losses.
"I haven't got any return in more than a year. So, why would I spend extra Tk 125 a month to keep the mobile app running?" said a frustrated Alam.
Investor sentiment mostly remained subdued throughout the year in 2024 due to uncertainties surrounding the market outlook amid economic and political tensions.
The benchmark index of the DSE lost 16.5 per cent in 2024, the biggest annual fall in four years.
This is the backdrop against which more than 2,000 DSE mobile app users gradually stopped using the app.
The number of beneficiary owners' accounts also fell more than 5 per cent year-on-year to 1.66 million in 2024, according to the Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd (CDBL).
The DBA president, however, said, "If investors can make a profit, the service charge is not a big deal."
Active users traded shares, resulting in higher transaction volumes.
Launching of the app
The premier bourse launched the mobile app in March 2016, developed by FlexTrade Systems, to cater to tech savvy investors.
The DSE, before the pandemic, had allocated almost all of its 100,000 connections to brokerage houses based on their needs and usages.
Brokers then allocated the connections to their clients. Investors registered with the app under brokerage houses.
After the pandemic, the new brokers, which secured brokerage licences without any stake in the premier bourse, got no connection at all to let their clients use the trading app.
"These brokerage houses agreed to get the service in exchange for payment. So, the prime bourse allowed them to get connections for a fee," said a DSE official, requesting not to be named.
Accordingly, the DSE upgraded the mobile app, increasing the capacity to 300,000 users from 100,000 in June 2023.
The app is available on Google Play Store and offers features to help users track the indices and get market and company related information. Investors first need to be registered with a broker and then install the app on their mobile phones.
Meanwhile, some of the top tier brokerage houses built their own trading apps and system platforms, spending huge sums out of their pockets for client hunting.
For example, LankaBangla Securities, City Brokerage, and BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage invested a lot to bring out apps to suit their preferences. Also, Shanta Securities and Sheltech Brokerage have their own apps. Their clients from any corner of the world are using the apps for trading in stocks.
In some cases, apps are accessible free of cost.

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