Dhaka: Police resorted to baton charge and water cannons in clashes with angry investors in Dhaka after the country’s stock market saw the biggest fall in its 55-year history, news agencies reported.
Trading on the Dhaka Stock Exchange index was halted after it fell by 660 points, or 9.25%, in n an hour.
The benchmark index had climbed by 80% in 2010 but has lost more than 27% since early December. Trading was also halted on the country’s other main index, the Chittagong Stock Exchange.
Police said that there were up to 5,000 investors holding protests on the streets in front of the exchange building while Some of them had  been violent
Police claimed that the protesters had started vandalizing government property which forced the police to resort to baton charge.
The rising value of the stocks in recent years has attracted about three million small-scale or retail investors in Bangladesh, it added.
Shares have become a popular investment for ordinary people, often providing higher returns than bank deposits and savings.
However, regulators have also taken measures in recent weeks to limit the proportion of deposits that banks can invest into the stock market – after concerns that shares were overvalued.
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