Investors bring out a procession at Motijheel in the capital yesterday after a sharp fall in share prices.Photo: STAR

Retail investors yesterday took to the streets again to protest the continuous slide in share prices just a day after they postponed their fast-unto-death programme for a week.
Recovering from a steep fall of 189 points in the first trading hour, the benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange ended with a 48-point loss to 5,258.
The nosedive in the early trading prompted several hundreds of investors to occupy the premises of the premier bourse at around 12noon.
The demonstrators halted traffic movement between Ittefaq crossing and Shapla Chattar in the commercial hub of Motijheel until 4pm, when they stopped their protest programmes for the day.
The investors formed a human chain from the DSE building to the Shapla Chattar under the banner of “Bangladesh Capital Market Investors' Unity Council”, and also brought out a procession.
Mizanur Rashid Chowdhury, president of the council, said: “We demand suspension of stock trading until the prime minister herself comes up with specific instructions to prop up the market.”
The first trading hour's losses even overshadowed the debacle in January-February this year. The key index went down to 5,203 points on February 28 from its peak of 8,918 points on December 5 last year.
Earlier, the investors postponed their fast-unto-death programme with a warning of waging tougher movement if the prime minister does not step in.
The government has taken a number of measures but they have failed to revive the investors' shaken confidence.
The government measures include the reinstatement of the tax rebate facility for stock investment, withdrawal of 10 percent tax on mutual funds income, reduction of tax at source on brokerage commission by half and formation of an advisory council.
Akter H Sannamat, a chartered accountant and market analyst, said two things triggered the freefall of the market: someone manipulated the market from behind the scene and there is a lack of confidence due to inactiveness of institutional investors.
The regulator should find and punish the manipulators who are doing serial trading, said Sannamat.
He said institutional investors remained inactive due to liquidity crisis because of a tight monetary policy.
The calculation system of commercial banks' exposure rules should be redefined as some additional points are included in the rules, he added.
Sannamat also said life fund and commercial banks' profit should be brought back to the market to increase liquidity flow.
Turnover of the premier bourse stood at Tk 277 crore yesterday, 32.3 percent higher form the previous day.
A total of 255 issues traded on the DSE, with 100 advanced, 142 declined and 13 remained unchanged.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange also declined with the Selective Categories Index, CSCX, the gauge of the port city bourse, closing at 9,477 points, after a lose of 88 points or 0.93 percent.
FIRE AT DSE
In a separate incident, a fire broke out on the seventh floor of the DSE building at noon.
After discovering flames in an internet cable, employees quickly extinguished the small fire at around 12noon.
The authorities suspected that the fire might have originated from an electric short circuit.
Abdul Halim, senior station manager of Fire Service and Civil Defence for Ramna zone, said the DSE men doused the fire before the fire fighters reached the spot.