Trading has been halted at Bangladesh’s main stock exchange amid protests over the largest single day loss in the bourse’s 55-year history.
The exchange halted trading on Monday as per orders from the Securities and Exchange Commission after the benchmark index plunged 9.25 per cent within the first hour of trading.
Buses of riot police were deployed to the stock exchange building in the capital Dhaka where protesters chanted slogans against the government and market regulators.
Some protesters burned vehicles as riot police struggled to keep control, firing tear gas and charging the crowd with batons.
Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from the capital, said: “Because Bangladesh’s stock market is largely driven by individual retail investors, many investors have lost their savings.”
Monirul Islam, an investor attending the protests, told the AFP news agency: “I lost $70,000 dollars. This is insane – my whole savings are gone.”
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