Ahsan Habib

Dhaka Stock Exchange’s profits dropped 6.70 percent year-on-year to Tk 97.4 crore in fiscal 2018-19 as a narrow product range and lacklustre stock market ward off investors.

Stock investors passed a very disappointing year in 2019 as the market was largely down by lack of confidence, liquidity crisis and regulatory challenges, dwarfing many measures that the government took to prop it up.

Meera Agro Inputs, a seed producer, is set to raise Tk 5 crore from the stock market within the next three months, becoming the first company to get listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange’s newly launched small cap board.

When Abdul Muktadir decided to set up a pharmaceutical company to manufacture high-quality and advanced drugs, his relatives and close family members did not accept without objecting, because he had already been well-settled and had earned famed in the industry.

The Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) has recently come up with a set of new investment rules for life insurance companies in a bid to minimise risks and ensure safety of policyholders’ money.

Investors holding the stocks of Active Fine Chemicals have been left disappointed after the pharmaceuticals ingredient company decided to share only 6 percent of its annual profit with them.

The share price of Zaheen Spinning Mills is skyrocketing on the Dhaka Stock Exchange despite a fall in its profits, largely riding on rumours.

Tractor sales declined 10 percent year-on-year to 6,287 units in the January-October period this year mainly because of the falling prices of farm produce and a government bar on such vehicles’ movement on highways.

Profits of most listed non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) plummeted in the first nine months of 2019 as a result of panic stemming from the liquidation of the People’s Leasing and Financial Services (PLFS).

More than two-thirds of listed banks posted higher earnings in the first nine months of 2019 amid liquidity crunch, lower credit demand and rising bad loans in a development that has left many puzzled.

Stock market data depicts a sorry picture of the textile and garment companies, depriving thousands of investors of expected dividends from the sector that accounted for 84 percent of Bangladesh’s exports last fiscal year.

Chinese stock exchanges ensure every data of listed companies is available to investors in order to guarantee transparency and avoid manipulation, said a top official the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE).

A lack of financial technology or fintech, well-rounded governance and securities with good track records is to blame for the very minimum participation of people in Bangladesh’s stock market compared to peer countries, say specialists.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) is going to introduce a new index at the Dhaka Stock Exchange this year to attract Chinese investors to the secondary market of Bangladesh’s premier bourse.

Stock investors are becoming inactive due to ailing stocks and lack of confidence, so the number of unutilised and zero balance beneficiary owners’ (BO) accounts is soaring.

Poor dividends announced by the listed companies and forced sale of shares by merchant bankers are pushing stocks down, adding further woes to the investors whose confidence in the market has already been dented, investors and analysts said.

City of London Investment Management Company (CLIM) has come down hard on the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission for its decision to allow asset management firms to extend the tenure of closed-end mutual funds without securing approval from unitholders.

The DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, is refusing to pick up even though the profits of the listed companies continued to soar in the last five years.

Bangladeshi hi-tech start-ups and SME entrepreneurs can now receive funding from local and foreign investors by pitching their ideas and enterprises on a platform of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE).

The 11 listed multinational companies of the Dhaka bourse are bagging higher profits than their local counterparts thanks to their superior skillset, research-based investment and astute management of operational costs.