Currently two types of Equity instruments are tradable at DSE –

• Equity
These are ordinary shares of listed companies. For a certain period from the IPO date certain number of shares are not tradable. DSE Indices are calculated based on free-float shares of selected listed companies. Free float is adjusted for non-tradable shares, institutional holdings, strategic holdings, sponsor-director holdings and Government holdings. Equity shares depending on the category have settlement period of T+2 or T+3. For the implementation of record dates for corporate actions, shares are sometimes placed on T+0 settlement cycles for a certain number of days.

• Mutual Funds
These are units of one of the variants of listed collective investment schemes. These funds are usually closed-end mutual funds governed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (Mutual Funds) Rules, 2001 and is backed by one corporate sponsor and usually is named with the sponsors name. The sponsors are required to hold at least 10% of the holding for at least a period of 1 year and 1% of the holding for the total life of the fund. There are designated Asset managers and Trustees. The Asset Managers manage the funds on day to day basis and investment strategies are governed by the IPO prospectus and is supervised by the Trustees. All assets of a mutual fund are maintained with a custodian. Mutual funds are traded on T+2 settlement cycles. For the implementation of record dates for corporate actions shares are sometimes placed on T+0 settlement cycles for the certain number of days. Mutual Funds are not parts of any indices. Asset managers are required to disclose the NAV of respective mutual funds on weekly basis.

Currently, three types of Debt instruments are tradable at DSE-
• Corporate Bonds
There are 2 corporate bonds are listed with DSE. Corporate Bonds are traded on T+2 settlement period trading fees are fixed at Taka 50 per transaction.

• Treasury Bonds
221 treasury bonds issued by the Bangladesh Bank (Central Bank of Bangladesh) are listed with DSE but not tradable at present. The common maturities are 5, 10, 15 and 20 years. The coupon rate varies depending on when the bonds were issued. Par value of each treasury bond is Tk. 100,000.

• Debentures
These are unsecured debt instruments issued by listed companies. They carry both variable and fixed interest rates. All currently listed debentures are matured and are still listed due to some incomplete legal proceedings.

DSE has already initiated steps to explore and launch various new tradable products starting with Convertibles, Bonds, Shariah Compliant Products including Sukuk, Index, ETFs and V-Next. Once these products are in the mature form the department will be seeking to launch related hedging products. DSE is continuously communicating with domestic and global stakeholders, hence DSE is going to start the trading of G-Sec in the DSE main market very soon.