Capital Market Important for Economic Development of Bangladesh
Importance of Capital Market in the economy: The capital market is the market for long-term loans and equity capital. Developing countries in fact, view capital market as the engine for future growth through mobilizing of surplus fund to the deficit group. An efficient capital market may perform as an alternative to many other financing sources as being the least cost capital source. Especially in a country like ours, where savings is minimal, and capital market can no won-der be a lucrative source of finance. The capital market also helps increase savings and investment, which are essential for economic development. An equity market, by allowing diversification across a variety of assets, helps reduce the risk the investors must bear, thus reducing the cost of capital, which in turn spurs investment and economic growth. However, volatility and mar-kept efficiency are two important features which will ultimately determine the effectiveness of the stock market in economic development. If a stock market is inefficient due to insufficient informational supply, investors face difficulty in choosing the optima-al investment as information on corporate performance is slow or less available. The resulting uncertainty may induce investors either to withdraw from the market until this uncertainty is resolved or discourage them to invest funds for long term. Moreover, if investors are not rewarded for taking on higher risk by investing in the stock market, or if excess volatility weakens investor’s confidence, they will not invest their savings in the stock market, and hence deter economic growth. The emerging stock markets offer an opportunity to examine the evolution of stock return distributions and stochastic processes in response to economic and political changes in these emerging economies.
Functions: The functioning of an efficient capital market may ensure smooth flotation of funds from the savers to the investors. When banking system cannot meet up the total need for funds to the market economy, capital market stands up to supplement. To put it in a single sentence, we can therefore say that the increased need for funds in the business sector has created an immense need for an effective and efficient capital market. It facilitates an efficient transfer of resources from savers to investors and becomes conduits for channeling investment funds from investors to borrowers. The capital market is required to meet at least two basic requirements: (a) it should support industrialization through savings mobilization, investment fund allocation and maturity transformation and (b) it must be safe and efficient in discharging the aforesaid function. It has two segments, namely, securities segments and non-securities segments.
Sources:https://www.bb.org.bd/fnansys/capmarket.php
