BSEC probe finds 10 involved in share price manipulation

The securities regulator has found 10 investors involved in manipulation of share prices of 12 listed companies, which made the market volatile in recent times.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has also decided to send Al-Haj Textile Mills and Monno Ceramic to the 'spot' market with effect from Sunday (September 15), as they violated the securities rules.

The decision came at a meeting of the BSEC on Thursday, with its Chairman M Khairul Hossain in the chair.

At the meeting, the securities regulator also froze shareholdings of Monno Welfare Foundation in Monno Ceramics and Monno Jute Stafflers, and the entire shares of Al-Haj Textiles' director Shamsul Huda as they breached a number of securities rules.

The BSEC took the action on the basis of an investigation report and sent it to the enforcement department for taking legal action against them.

On July 21 this year, the BSEC formed the enquiry committee to find out the reasons behind the relentless fall in share prices and detect anomalies, manipulations and wrongdoings.

The investigation team found that various forms of manipulation took place during the trading of shares of United Power Generation Company, VFS Thread Dyeing, IPDC Finance, SS Steel, Intech Limited, Saiham Textiles, Saiham Cotton Mills, Rupali Life Insurance Company, Monno Ceramics, Monno Jute Stafflers, Investment Corporation of Bangladesh and Dutch-Bangla Bank in recent months.

The committee also found that some individuals, institutional investors, intermediaries and company officials are involved in price manipulation through series of trading, giving loans beyond the limit, auto client trade, anomalies in financial accounts, circular trading and short sale.

The BSEC froze the beneficiary owners' accounts of investors Biswajit Das and his wife, Shahadat Hossain and B&BS Trade International, Saif Ullah, Mohammad Shiraj, ASS Ahsan Habib Choudhury, and Lutfur Gani Titu and his wife and his institution Satrong Agro Fisheries until the legal action is taken in accordance with the investigation reports.

The watchdog also found anomalies in financial statements and share trading of Monno Ceramics, and share sales by Monno Welfare Foundation. So, the commission sent reports on Monno Ceramics, Monno Welfare Foundation and related people and institutions to its enforcement department for legal action.

Monno Wefare Foundation, the corporate director of Monno Ceramics and Monno Jute Stafflers, cannot trade its shares in the two companies until enforcement action is taken, the BSCE said.

In July this year, the Dhaka Stock Exchange reported to the commission that Shamsul sold 20,000 shares of Al-Haj Textiles without declaration.

Later, a BSEC investigation found that Shamsul traded almost 0.5 million shares of the company, dragging down the joint shareholding by the company's directors below mandatory 30 per cent.

In January, Al-Haj Textiles disseminated price sensitive information that it had received Tk 558,346,578 from Agrani Bank, which was not true, said a BSEC press release.

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