Ahsan Habib

Soaring market capitalisation last week pushed Bangladesh’s stock exchange indices to their highest point since inception in 2013 thanks to increased investor participation.

A recent unusual price hike of the Beacon Pharmaceuticals stock prompted the company to inform investors on July 28 that it had no undisclosed information that could have instigated the rise.

The shares of many low-performing companies might have risen to surprising levels at the Dhaka Stock Exchange in the last one year, but it is the firms with strong earnings and dividend records that contributed most to the premier bourse.

Most listed multinational companies dealing in construction and pandemic-related products were blessed with a higher year-on-year growth in profits in the first half of the current year.

Bangladesh’s stock market remained buoyant for the second consecutive day yesterday, sending the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) to a record high, as investors were upbeat that liquidity flow in the market  would  continue owing to the central bank’s expansionary monetary policy.

Profits of listed shoe-makers of Bangladesh dropped in 2020 despite the drastic fall in the price of rawhides as the sales of the finished products crashed because of the economic slump caused by the pandemic.

The benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) rose to its record high yesterday despite technical glitches halting trade at the premier bourse for around one and a half hours.

The blue-chip index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange is lagging behind the broader index as most investors prefer to bet on low-priced securities and are driven by rumours instead of making investment decisions by examining the fundamentals of companies.

Junk shares are being traded like hot cakes on the stock exchanges of Bangladesh as rumours are mostly sending such securities to lofty heights rather than performances.

Hardly any improvement in workplace safety has taken place at the non-garment factories over the years as the authorities were primarily bogged down in fixing the loopholes in the apparel industry.

Government officials, lawyers, engineers, owners of construction companies, private clinics and doctors mostly whitened their undisclosed wealth last fiscal year.

Four small capital-based companies which have returned from the over-the-counter (OTC) market have been turned into new pawns by gamblers in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

Twelve out of the country’s 22 listed fuel and power companies saw profits increase year-on-year in the first nine months of the ongoing fiscal year thanks to the rebounding of the economy.

Stocks of GPH Ispat rose 2.47 per cent yesterday after news that the company’s Tk 2,390-crore plant has begun commercial production.

The gloomy picture of the banking sector led to a fall in the stock market over the past week amid rising coronavirus cases and deaths.

The stock market has risen to new heights with market capitalisation hitting a high point last week while overvalued shares still remaining a concern.

The stock price of almost all general insurance companies has more than doubled over the past year riding on speculation, putting the whole market at risk.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday recorded its highest turnover in a decade, as the ongoing bull run seems to have gotten an added impetus from the proposed budget measures for the incoming fiscal year.

The national budget for 2021-22 is being proposed today all the while the country’s economy faces some tough realities stemming from the pandemic’s second wave.

Bata Shoe Company (Bangladesh), one of the country’s most widely known footwear brands, suffered losses for the first time in 59 years of operations as it had to shutter outlets during the main sales seasons amid the coronavirus outbreak.