Dhaka, April 20 -- A majority of listed banks have refrained from making fresh investments in the equity market even if they have not yet exhausted the permissible exposure limit because of pessimism surrounding stocks.

The banks, which have already invested substantial amounts of funds, have incurred huge losses due to the persistent erosion in the equity market.

Subsequently, they had to keep provisions from operating profits against the losses and the provisioning requirements continued to rise with the losses.

As many as 24 out of 36 listed banks have investments up to 15 per cent of their capital in the secondary market, within the allowable limit of 25 per cent, as of February this year. Because of the fear of further erosion of ...