DSE app download up 51pc in pandemic

Investors are apparently increasingly opting for executing trade through the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) mobile app as its download has soared by around 51 per cent during the last two years amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

At the end of 2021, it had been downloaded 77,064 times, up from 51,199 times on January 1, 2020.

In other words, the app has been opened for use by 77,064 beneficiary owner (BO) accounts.

The DSE launched the app on March 9, 2016 to bring ease to trading of stocks and give a boost to the market.

The app was developed by FlexTrade Systems. Apart from executing purchase and sale orders, the app features real time display of market and trading statistics, company and portfolio status, company news and purchase and sale alerts.

Due to the pandemic, many investors chose to conduct trade through the app staying back at home, so the figure could be inflated and not reflecting the real scenario, according to market analysts.

Turnover through the app in 2021 reached Tk 42,681 crore, which was 12 per cent of the total turnover worth Tk 354,052 crore, according the DSE data.

There are some drawbacks that should be solved first, then use will soar and that is necessary, said Richard D' Rozario, president of the DSE Brokers Association of Bangladesh.

Every user is being tagged with an authorised representative of a brokerage house who would be responsible for the user's trade placements, he said.

This means any mistake of the user falls on the shoulders of the representative, for which many broker houses are reluctant to allow wholesale use of the app, he said.

Clients' knowledge of trade is still not up to the mark so it will take time for use of the app to be popularised, he added.

As the market trade was shut for over two months during the pandemic due to bourse activities still being mainly done manually, it damaged the country's image abroad, said Rozario, also managing director of Global Securities.

The app's use should be simplified and it should provide more data to attract investors, he added.

"I availed the app for one of my two beneficiary owner accounts to trade shares," said Masum Ahmad, who is employed at a private company.

When market starts going up, trading through the app become difficult, he said, adding that this discouraged him from opening a second app for the other account.

The DSE should take proper steps so that investors can conduct trade smoothly with the app, he added.

The DSE had initially in 2018 decided to impose a monthly fee of Tk 150 for using the app, saying the bourse pays $1 per month to the app developer for each user.

However, it backtracked from its decision following protests of stock investors.

"We want to see higher use of the app as it is necessary in the digital era," said Shaikh Shamsuddin Ahmed, a commissioner of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).

Everything depends on demand, on whether it has been rising, he said, adding that the bourse can work on developing peoples' capacity on using the app.