Share transactions in the stock market sharply declined in the last 18 months due to the floor price to the point that around 80 per cent of the brokerage houses are now unable to bear their operating expenses.
"Stockbrokers are in dire straits as low turnovers have rendered a massive dent in their income," said Saiful Islam, newly-elected president of the DSE Brokers Association (DBA) of Bangladesh.
He was speaking at a meeting with newly-elected members of the DBA and members of the Capital Market Journalists' Forum (CMJF), held at the DSE Tower in Nikunja of the capital on Thursday.
The main income source of brokerage houses is commission on the trades in shares facilitated by them.
Saiful Islam lamented that since 2010, the market had not seen any gains, meaning the country's economy development in the last 15 years had not had any impact on the capital market.
"The market must be allowed to run at its own pace," said Mr Islam, also director of BRAC EPL Stockbrokerage.
The process, through which new companies make an entry in the market, has remained complicated.
It is time to review the IPO process, said the DBA president.
In recent years, the number of IPOs fell drastically, he said, adding that market development was not possible without IPOs of good companies.
Sayadur Rahman, former president of the Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association (BMBA), echoed the view.
"Increasing the tax rate gap [between listed and non-listed companies] is very important to attract good companies to the market."
DSE Managing Director ATM Tariquzzaman said, "The laws and regulations of the share market should be market friendly."
Minhaz Mannan Emon, former director of the DSE, said, "60-70 per cent of the employees of the brokerage houses have left. The big houses have somehow survived but the condition of the small houses is very bad."
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