DSE official suspended for posting ACI earnings wrong
Because of the false message of a turnaround in profitability, ACI’s stock reached as high as Tk270 from Tk242
The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has suspended the Assistant General Manager of its market operations department after his team posted a wrong earnings figure of ACI Ltd, destabilising the company's share price on Tuesday morning.
Shafiqur Rahman, a deputy general manager and the spokesperson of the stock exchange, told The Business Standard that the DSE management, as an instant reaction, has suspended its market operations department head Saied Mahmud Zubayer.
Kamrun Nahar, a senior manager of the same department, has been given the same charge.
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ACI Limited, after its board meeting on Monday, disclosed a consolidated net loss of Tk5.99 per share for the first quarter ending on September 30, 2019.
But at the beginning of Tuesday's trading, in its trading server and the official website, the DSE posted Tk5.19 consolidated profit per share of the company which is the solo earnings of the mother company.
Investors, looking at the positive earnings figure, suddenly rushed for ACI shares as they thought that ACI Ltd had made a turnaround in the first quarter in a consolidated basis after posting a high annual loss, mainly because of increased debt servicing costs.
The highly leveraged company along with its subsidiaries also posted a net loss of Tk14.87 per share for the year ending on June 30, 2019.
ACI stocks closed below Tk230 on Monday. Because of the false message of a turnaround in profitability, the stock reached as high as Tk270 during the opening session of Tuesday.
Later, during the trading session, the exchange authority noticed and corrected the post, which revealed that ACI Ltd incurred a consolidated loss of Tk5.99 against each share.
Finally, ACI Ltd's shares closed at Tk242.
The DSE Director Minhaz Mannan Emon said, the market operations head has been temporarily suspended and the DSE management is further investigating whether the mistake was unintentional or not.
A three-member investigation committee, which includes senior officials of the exchange, has been formed. The committee will submit its findings within November 17, 2019.
Wrong earnings posting at the exchange's website has had an unwanted price impact historically. It did not matter whether the mistake was intentional or just a human error.
Following wrong postings of corporate disclosures and their market impact, the BSEC prohibited any board meeting at the listed companies during trading hours, a few years back.
