The Magic of Empty Factories
The Dhaka Stock Exchange listed thirty closed firms to warn people. Usually, bad news makes prices fall. Here, the opposite happened. Prices for twenty-nine of these firms went up sharply. Some stocks even tripled in just three months. It seems the ghosts of these companies are very busy on the trading floor. Investors are buying shares of firms that have not made a single product in years.
Who Invited the Zombies to the Party?
Market experts say this is not magic but manipulation. Vested interest groups use rumors to push prices higher. There is a class of traders who love to gamble on penny stocks. These firms have very few shares available. This makes it easy for manipulators to move the price. They target companies like Familytex and Appollo Ispat because they are easy to play with.
Twenty-Four Years of Silence
Some of these ghosts have been around for a long time. Meghna Pet Industries has been out of operation for twenty-four years. Yet, its stock price recently jumped by sixty-nine percent. Analysts are baffled by this rise. A company with no dividends and no operations should not be trading freely. It stays on the market while machines gather dust and workers leave.
Is the Watchman Fast Asleep?
The stock exchange and the regulator are watching. But trading continues. The DSE says it is preparing to delist these firms in phases. However, critics say they should have acted much sooner. Simply publishing a list was not enough to stop the zombie rally. Some believe trading should be suspended immediately. This would protect small investors from burning their hands.
This rise in prices is not natural growth. It looks like a trap set by manipulators. When a company is shut, its value should stay low. Instead, we see a ghost market fueled by speculation. This situation shows a big gap in stock market regulations. If dead firms can be pumped up, the market’s health is at risk. Regulators must decide if they are running a professional exchange or a high-stakes casino.
Growing, A Market or a Trap? – Your Call!
– Opinion | Daily ScrollDown