Ahsan Habib

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has ordered Delta Spinners to reconstitute its board for having failed to leave Z category within stipulated two years.

The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange rose by a whopping 216.89 points yesterday to post the second-highest single-day increase in history on news of India’s coronavirus vaccine approval that also boosted hopes for Bangladesh.

Several business leaders and entrepreneurs have expressed their hope that Bangladesh’s economy will start to recover from mid-2021 after the Covid-19 vaccine arrives.

Despite all the economic uncertainty amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, 2020 saw growing investor confidence in the country’s stock market, which rose by more than 20 per cent this past year.

Earnings of state-run fuel supplying companies dropped in the July-September period due to a sharp fall in income from bank deposits and in fuel sales amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Most of the industries in Bangladesh witnessed drastic fall in profits in the outgoing year due to the protracted pandemic. The pharmaceuticals industry was an exception.

Beximco Pharma has been the top choice for stock investors in the last few weeks as they believe the drug producer will make higher profits in the days to come with the administering of a Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh.

High taxes on asset transfers act as the main obstacle to creating a vibrant Sukuk market in the corporate sector, according to market intermediaries.

The start of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in the UK and the US cheered institutional investors around the world, allowing global stock markets to end higher last week and Bangladesh was no exception.

Nearly half of the listed state-run companies have been incurring losses for many years due to a lack of competitiveness, in turn affecting stock investors.

Banks are going to invest an additional Tk 1,350 crore in the stock market by utilising Bangladesh Bank’s incentive, a development that will likely to boost both liquidity flow and investor confidence.

Foreign investors’ participation in Bangladesh’s stock exchanges has been on the decline for the last several months as the second wave of the pandemic started taking its toll on global markets.

The stock market index had been on an upward curve last week with pharmaceuticals in the lead as investors bought the sector’s stocks in hopes of higher future returns amid the threat of a second wave of the pandemic.

Shyampur Sugar Mills recently announced that it would stop sugarcane processing for the rest of the current fiscal year, a development that has left its stock investors in a state of uncertainty.

Stock market regulator has written to the police to take initiatives so that six directors of three listed companies cannot flee the country.

Listed drug makers saw their profits rebound in the first quarter (July-September) of the ongoing fiscal thanks to an increase in the number of healthcare seekers.

Atlas Bangladesh, a motorcycle assembler and distributer, has been sinking deeper into losses ever since fiscal 2015-16 when its agreement with Hero Honda came to an end.

The directors of 28 listed companies have failed to hold at least 30 per cent shares of their companies collectively within the November 30 deadline set by the regulator.

Olympic Industries, a listed manufacturer and retailer of consumer goods, is set to enhance its biscuit production capacity by more than 10 per cent.

The ice-cream industry was getting ready for their busiest season of the year in March. But instead of hauling in record sales, the industry witnessed its steepest lean period because of the coronavirus pandemic as people opted to stay indoors mostly.