Published : 24 Jan 2013, 12:21 PM
The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) will launch a new benchmark index – DSEX – on Jan 28, the premier bourse said in a statement on Thursday.
The decision came from a board meeting earlier in the day.
There will be two indices – the key index will be called DSEX which would comprise shares of all enlisted companies.
The other one will be ‘DS 30’ which would comprise shares of 30 selected companies.
Confirming the decision, DSE Director Minhaj Mannan Emon told bdnews24.com: “A correct index of international standard is going to be launched at DSE. This index will be reliable.”
DSE currently has three indices – DGEN, DSI and DS20.
The capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in December 2011 decided to run the index based on ‘free float method’ after an expert committee said the current index was wrong.
The DSE in August last year signed a contract with the US financial services company Standard & Poor's (S&P) to correct the index taking only the free floating shares into account.
It started running the new index experimentally from last December.
However, the main bourse on Thursday did not confirm the base of the new index – DSEX.
Asked about the matter, DSE Senior Vice-President Ahmed Rashid Lali told bdnews24.com: “We will sit with SEC on Sunday to reach a decision on the matter.”
However, a DSE Director, asking not to be named, told bdnews24.com that the base of the new index was being set in a way so that the difference with the current one was not much.
“And the base of DS30 would be 1000 points,” the official said.
DSI was launched in November 1993 with the base of 350 points while DGEN started with 817 points from November 2001. DS20 began with a base of 1000 points from January 2001.
Meanwhile, the companies in Chittagong Stock Exchange index, CSE30, are being rearranged from Sunday. Eight companies have been dropped from that index.