The country's premier bourse has sought to extend the regular trading period by 30 minutes. The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has adopted the proposal in its board meeting and sent it to the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) for its approval.

Shakil Rizvi, a DSE director says that most of the stock exchanges conduct daily share trading for more than four fours. In some exchanges the trading remains open until afternoon and the premier bourse sought to extend the trading period considering the increased number of companies and investors.

Presently, the DSE conducts share trading for four hours from 10:30am to 2:30pm.DSE managing director KAM Mazedur Rahman commented that the DSE would extend the trading period taking into account the practices in other countries. He further added that the extension of trading period will give flexibility to the investors.

According to the DSE managing director, the proposed 30 minutes will include two separate sessions, a pre-opening session and a post-closure session. The pre-opening and post-closure sessions will last 15 minutes each.

Investors would be allowed to place purchase and sales orders only during the pre-opening session and the orders would neither be executed nor be visible to the public, according to the DSE proposal.

During the post-closure session of 15 minutes, orders which would be placed only at close-price would be settled and the orders which were unsettled during the trading session could be settled adjusting prices, says the DSE managing director. Meanwhile, the premier bourse rescheduled the trading period for the holy month of Ramadan without cutting any time. During the Ramadan, the share trading will start at 10 am instead of 10.30am. The trading will end at 2pm instead of 2:30pm.