Stocks slide piles huge losses on GQ Ball Pen

The falling stock market has taken a heavy toll on GQ Ball Pen, which has lost a significant amount of its investment in other companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange in the last one year.

The ballpoint pen and plastic maker saw about Tk 4 crore of its stock investment vanish during 2017-18, when the premier bourse shed Tk 19,524 crore of its market capital.

The company has made some profit in the first quarter of 2017-18, when its earnings per share (EPS) was Tk 0.15.

After that it continued losing money, bringing down the EPS for the whole 2017-18 fiscal year to Tk 5.12 in the negative, much lower from Tk 1.66 in 2016-17.

In the first quarter of 2018-19, the company remained down on its luck, as the EPS hit Tk 0.54 in the negative.

The local company had an investment of over Tk 33 crore in the stock market as of June 30 this year, according to its annual report.

Uzzal Kumar Saha, company secretary of GQ Ball Pen, has blamed the drop in earnings partially on the slight fall in pen sales during the period.

“We will make up for the loss very soon, as we have already introduced ball pens of new designs.”

GQ's paid-up capital is Tk 8.92 crore and has Tk 121.61 crore in its reserve, according to company data.

The pen maker has a record of providing lucrative dividends to its shareholders.

It provided 10 percent cash dividend in 2017 and 12.5 percent stock dividend in 2016 -- lower than those in the previous years.

As of October 31 this year, sponsors and directors own 41.88 percent stakes in the company, which got listed on the DSE in 1986.

GQ's share closed at Tk 68.5 on the DSE floor on Thursday, down from Tk 108.4 on July 7 -- the highest in the last one year.