Ahsan Habib

Five listed companies that have an accumulated loss of at least Tk 500 crore each saw their share price rise sharply in the past three months, whereas the stocks of the top profit-makers fell.  

Financial wellness platform Wagely Bangladesh this week hosted its sixth “wagely day” on the premises of garment manufacturer SQ Group. 

Stocks of Orion Infusion soared more than five times in recent months despite having low earnings per share and repeated warnings from the company that it has no undisclosed information that could have spurred such an abnormal rise.

Foreign investors in Bangladesh’s stock market are selling shares en masse as the local currency’s depreciation against the US dollar coupled with various policy changes over the past few years has lowered their confidence in securing adequate returns. 

Listed companies in Bangladesh have built up reserves of Tk 153,000 crore collectively from their respective earnings for use in expansion and to weather out rainy days, when they would otherwise be forced to raise fresh funds from investors or borrow from lenders. 

The country’s manufacturing and processing behemoth Pran-RFL Group has made a foray into mobile phone manufacturing to capture a slice of the rapidly expanding digital device market in Bangladesh. 

Cricket icon Shakib Al Hasan is once again in the spotlight as his name has come up in probes into stock manipulation.

In its first, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has moved to be tougher against the issue managers or merchant banks that have brought low-performing companies to the stock market. 

The finance costs have at least doubled for the firms that have taken on dollar-denominated loans from external sources owing to the depreciation of the Bangladeshi taka against the American greenback. 

A common scenario in the domestic stock market is low performing stocks becoming the top gainers no matter how the market indices react.

Setting prices that reach all segments of society alongside having a myriad of products gives extra mileage to Pran-RFL Group in continuing to expand their business in local and global markets.

Walton Hi-tech Industries’ portfolio is diversified, ranging from home appliances to electric and electronic products, but the items that sell the most are its refrigerators and freezers.

The One Stop Service (OSS) of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (Bida) is yet to meet expectations due to non-cooperation of some entities, said Md Sirazul Islam, whose tenure as its executive chairman ended last week. 

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) is in discussions with SGS Group and Nippon Express Bangladesh to build a technological ecosystem for smart warehousing facilities and intelligent quality control systems for the country’s first commodities exchange, or futures market. 

Familytex (BD), a listed textile company, lied in its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus by saying that one of its sponsors was a South Korean national in a bid to create a positive impression among general investors, according to a probe.

Investor Abu Sayeed was eagerly buying stocks of Orion Infusion sitting inside a brokerage house in Dhaka last Thursday. The share of the company had almost tripled in the past three months.

The unit prices in the mutual fund sector have dropped over the past few weeks even though they disbursed handsome dividends in recent times as the National Board of Revenue (NBR) suggested deducting source tax from the cash dividend income. 

A number of directors of Prime Islami Life Insurance siphoned off more than Tk 300 crore funds by keeping the fixed deposits of the insurer as collateral to secure bank loans for another company, putting policyholders’ interests at risk, according to an audit. 

Most of the listed non-life insurance companies in Bangladesh posted lower profits in the first half of 2022 largely due to a decrease in premium incomes from their marine insurance segment as the country moved to curb imports.  

The government’s tax measures contradict its plan to turn the stock market into a destination for long-term investments, something apparent in the pace with which individuals and institutions trade shares simply to make a quick buck.