Ahsan Habib

Jubilant FoodWorks, the master franchisee of Domino's Pizza in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, has fully acquired Jubilant Golden Harvest Ltd, the franchisee of Domino’s Pizza in Bangladesh.

“Per capita income is the income that is not seen by mass people but built on a few people.”

When a sector offers opportunities to make a good profit and there is a conducive climate to invest, investors -- large and small and local and foreign -- don’t need to be told to channel investments there. Money flows in automatically. It is common when it comes to investment in the free market economy.

Shwapno, the largest retail chain in Bangladesh, posted the biggest growth in turnover in the last financial year, driven by higher sales through its e-commerce platform and teleservice amid the coronavirus pandemic.

When the stock market goes through a bearish trend, the regulator usually prods institutional investors, mostly unofficially, to pour money to revive it and some of them respond positively.  

The International Monetary Fund has revised down its economic growth projection for Bangladesh to 6.4 percent for the current fiscal year largely because of Russia-Ukraine war and supply chain disruptions.

Incentives are necessary to nudge people into using digital payment methods, such as cards and mobile financial services (MFS), so that Bangladesh can achieve its goal of becoming a cashless society.

A commodity exchange is needed for Bangladesh as it will ensure fair prices for both producers and consumers, said Asif Ibrahim, chairman of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), as it is set to appoint a consultant to establish the market.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) is planning to launch the country’s first commodities exchange, or futures market, this year, aiming to reduce the price difference of commodities between what consumers pay and what producers get.

At a time when the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) is on the decline and turnover plummeting, the SME index has skyrocketed for an influx of investors lured by “risky” shares on speculations that they would rise further.

Large foreign banks operating in Bangladesh took a hit in 2021 as their profits plunged due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the lower interest rate regime.

Losses of bKash, a subsidiary of Brac Bank, widened by 83 per cent year-on-year in 2021, even though its revenue rose by 21 per cent, for incurring higher costs on training, investment and waivers on the charge to send money.

Among all the listed firms in Bangladesh, business of multinational companies (MNCs) has been growing steadily driven by efficiency, focus on quality and proper management of resources compared to their local counterparts.

Profits of the tannery and textile companies were affected the most amongst that of all listed companies for the Covid-19 pandemic as their main period for sales was hit.

Turnover of the engineering sector in Bangladesh grew at the fastest pace from 2015 to 2020 among all the sectors, reflecting the largely agrarian economy’s transformation towards manufacturing.

The pharmaceuticals sector in Bangladesh displayed the fastest growth in profit between 2015 and 2020 as more people, armed with rising purchasing power, afford more healthcare products.

Bank stock prices have been low for several years now despite providing handsome annual dividends and this begs the question, why are investors less enthusiastic about buying shares in what was once dubbed the most attractive sector?

Anti-ulcer drugs are the top-selling medicines in Bangladesh with sales clocking more than 12 per cent growth annually since 2015 driven by unhealthy food habits, use of excess oil and spices in food preparation and food adulteration.

If you like the idea of putting together your own meal by picking vegetables from a field and catching fish from a nearby pond, then you would love to visit Bongaon Villa, an agro-tourism centre situated in Bhaluka of Mymensingh.

Stock market analysts have questioned the market intervention of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) to stop the freefall of stocks as the decline is not unique to Bangladesh as markets are bleeding across the country due to tensions over the Russian-Ukraine war, runaway oil prices and surging inflation.