The newly-launched mobile-based share trading application of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSE-Mobile, has received a lukewarm response from investors in nearly four months after its launch as only 2,100 investors are currently using the app.
DSE officials said lack of initiatives on the part of the bourse to make the application popular might be the main reason for the tepid response from investors.
They said that the DSE failed to carry out any campaign regarding the application due to lack of budgetary allocation of the bourse.
The bourse will carry out programmes to popularise the application during the fiscal year 2016-17 depending the bourses’ budgetary allocation, DSE officials said.
Besides, reluctance of the brokerage houses to allow their clients to manage their accounts by their own was also a reason for the weak response, they said.
The premier bourse on March 9 launched the mobile-based share trading app in presence of finance minister AMA Muhith and Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission chairman M Khairul Hossain at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
According to DSE data, the number of active users was around 2,050 as on Wednesday (June 29).
Of the users, 550 investors used desktop version, 750 investors used trade version of DSE-Mobile and 800 investors used non-trade version of the application.
On June 29, total 750 trade orders were executed out of the 1,550 orders placed through the DSE-Mobile.
To attract investors and to make the trading application familiar to investors, the premier bourse initially made it free of cost for users for a particular time.
The time period, however, is yet to be disclosed.
As per the DSE’s declaration, charges will be applicable for using the application after that period.
At the same time, the country’s premier bourse also made data uses for application free for the Robi users.
Asked, a DSE official told New Age on Thursday, ‘Investors’ response in terms of subscribing the DSE-Mobile application is insignificant considering our target.’
‘We cannot directly communicate with the investors in this regard. It’s the brokers’ jurisdiction to whom or which investors they will provide the service or not,’ he said.
Engaging people with the trading system also depends on brokers, the DSE official said.
‘We have opened an official facebook page where we are giving answers to different queries from investors,’ he said.
‘We have planned to get 7,000 subscribers by December 31 this year including the existing subscribers,’ he said.
According to the Central Depository Bangladesh Limited, which preserves investors’ beneficiary accounts and share-related data, the number of active BO accounts was 31,53,442 on Sunday.
Admitting the dissatisfactory investors’ response to the DSE-Mobile app, another DSE official, however,
expected that the number of users would increase gradually.
Android phone 4.4-version with four inches display and 320 pixel resolutions are the minimum requirements for using the application.
The DSE Mobile allows users to place orders directly to the bourse’s server but traders and brokers would be able to interrupt if any unusual order was placed.
The application has two versions — one is called DSE-Mobile VIP, a non-trading version, and the second one called DSE-Mobile Trader, a trading version.
DSE-Investor is a web-based desktop application that will offer all the features of DSE-Mobile Trader which can be accessed using any browser including chrome, firefox, safari and IE.
Source: New Age