Ahsan Habib

At the turn of the year, sweet makers were impatient for the month of April to arrive.

Since April 1, Farhana Nazira is having trouble sleeping.

With a heavy heart, dairy farmer Mohammad Rajib on Sunday emptied the pails of milk he got from his 14 cows into a manure pit.

Local pharmaceuticals have produced a drug called Favipiravir -- an anti-flu and viral infection medication -- said to be effective in the treatment of coronavirus patients in China.

Stocks delivered their worst first quarter of a year as nervous investors went for massive selloffs, initially prompted by anti-market measures and then by the fast-spreading coronavirus, which dealt a heavy blow to the economy and businesses at home and abroad.

The stock market regulator is set to award new licences for brokerage houses to any firms, including foreign ones, in order to attract more investors to the market.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has asked banks in the eurozone to not pay any dividend in order to boost their capacity to absorb losses that will invariably take place for the global coronavirus pandemic that has brought the world down on its knees.

Despite being hit by the fallout of the coronavirus, Bangladesh’s corporate giants are not sitting idle as they have joined the government’s efforts by enhancing supplies to the ill-equipped health sector and extending helping hand to the low-income people who are facing existential crisis because of the lockdown.

Globally, stock market investors are looking to cash out their shares. It’s the same here in Bangladesh -- except they are not finding any takers.

Junk and some over-valued stocks were the real winners of the capital market regulator’s move on Thursday to set a new floor price to thwart a meltdown in the bourse amid the heightened coronavirus fears.

There is a Spanish proverb that goes along the lines of pouring water on a drowned mouse, which means putting in more resources into a losing battle.

BD Paints, a relatively new entrant to the Bangladesh’s paint landscape, plans to raise Tk 20 crore from the capital market in order to ramp up its production capacity -- even though about 60 per cent of its existing capacity remains unutilised.

Farhana Hakim, once an employee of a private company, embarked on her journey as an exporter of non-traditional items like baskets and showpieces banking on mere seagrasses (locally known as hogla) and date palm leaves.

Walton Hi-Tech Industries is flying high, so it is reasonable to assume there would be a clamour for a slice of the home grown electronics giant.

The high price and a lack of awareness are the main reasons why as many as 80 per cent of the menstruating females in Bangladesh do not use sanitary napkins, leaving them susceptible to a myriad of health problems.

Advent Pharma illegally appointed Ahmed Zaker and Co to audit the company’s financial report, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) found in an investigation.

Local electronics giant Walton is, arguably, going through a purple patch.

The news of offloading of shares by a key sponsor of Ring Shine Textile yesterday, within just two and a half months after its listing on the Dhaka and Chattogram bourses, is yet another blow to the general investors, who have seeing the value of their holdings plummet by the day.

All over the globe stocks have been on slide in recent days as economic costs of the coronavirus pandemic have started to spook investors. The situation is no different in Bangladesh.

Robi plans to submit its application for listing in the country’s twin bourses to the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission in the middle of next month, as the long-awaited debut of the second largest mobile phone operator is finally taking shape.