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A High Court (HC) division bench of Supreme Court Thursday vacated the stay order filed under a writ petition against the operation of Dhaka Stock Exchange (Direct Listing) Regulations, 2006.
The HC verdict ended a two-month legal fight paving the way for direct listing of profitable companies under power, telecom, energy and other sectors on the stock exchanges.
Sources in the DSE said the HC division bench comprising Syed Muhammad Dastogir Hussain and Mamnoor Rahman vacated the stay order against the operation of the regulations after hearing the case in three sessions on August 9, August 15 and August 17 (Thursday).
Earlier one investor Sheikh Mahamud Kabir filed a writ petition June 18 challenging the Direct Listing Regulations 2006 and the HC Division Bench served a three-week show-cause notice upon Finance Secretary, Commerce Secretary, Chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), DSE President and DSE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as to why the direct listing regulation should not be declared illegal.
The court had also suspended the operation of the regulation until the disposal of the case.
Noted lawyer Rafique-ul-Huq moved the case in favour of the DSE.
Share trading of state-owned power company Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd (PGCB) -- will now begin very shortly after the end of legal restrictions.
A total of 9,10,894 shares of the PGCB with the face value of Tk 100 each will be offloaded to the general shareholders under the direct listing regulations.
The PGCB's net profit was Tk 263.72 million in 2004-05 fiscal, a whopping 260.27 per cent rise over the previous year.
Companies like Titas Gas Ltd and Bakhrabad Gas Ltd will now be encouraged to float their shares in the near future, DSE sources said.
The Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (DESCO) is the first company under the direct listing regulations which began its trading on the DSE and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) June 18.
The DESCO floated 28,60,182 shares with the face value of Tk 100 each.
The DESCO, state-owned power company topped the volume leader's position for the eighth consecutive week with 791,850 shares worth Tk 287.34 million traded accounting for 12.53 per cent of the total market turnover. The company's share price registered a 29.39 per cent rise in the week against the previous week.
Prices of the DESCO shares closed at Tk 385.25 Thursday, the last trading day in the week.
Market operators said offloading of shares of profitable companies in power, energy, telecom and other sectors will help boost the stock market, already in a bullish trend in recent period.
"We need quality shares and the direct listing regulations will encourage large companies to offload their shares," said DSE's senior vice president Ahmad Rashid.
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