Ahsan Habib

The stock market has started to bounce back despite the ongoing pandemic thanks mainly to investors’ growing confidence in the new leadership at the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) as they took some measures to restore discipline.

Listed firms have called upon the regulators to introduce guidelines on how to set the share value that the companies have to issue against share money deposit.

Anomalies in preparing financial reports of listed companies are not rare in Bangladesh and the authorities have tracked down yet another case.

The new governing body of the stock market regulator, it seems, is earnest in its efforts to straighten out the bourse that has long been a playground for rogue players.

City Bank’s profit tumbled 42 per cent in the first half of 2020 due to the new interest rate regime and disruption in business caused by the pandemic.

The famed off-road motorcycles of KTM would soon be available in Bangladesh thanks to Runner Automobiles, which yesterday announced an agreement with Bajaj Auto that part-owns the Austrian bike brand to become its authorised distributor.

It will take no less than a year from hereon for normalcy to return to businesses that have been devastated in the past four months following the novel coronavirus outbreak, said SM Ashraful Alam, managing director of Walton Hi-tech Industries.

Keya Cosmetics becomes a textbook case of how a high-flying company falls from grace in fits and starts.

SS Steel, a newly listed company, plans to acquire Saleh Steel Industries with the view to staking a larger claim on the Tk 55,000 crore-industry, in yet another indication of the impending recovery of the Bangladesh economy from the fallout of the global coronavirus pandemic.

The expected happened. Banks’ profits were supposed to take a massive hit in the second quarter of 2020, and that took place.

Stock investors yesterday welcomed the expansionary monetary policy unveiled by the central bank, hoping it would rejuvenate the battered economy and persuade institutional investors to pour money into the capital market.

Footwear giant Bata Shoe has incurred losses for the first time in Bangladesh as it missed the country’s main shopping season after people’s income was wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.

Reckitt Benckiser Bangladesh witnessed robust growth in sales and profits in the pandemic-ravaged first half of 2020 on the back of higher sales of hygiene products.

The real estate sector and its subsectors are struggling to maintain their growth due to the economic slowdown induced by the coronavirus pandemic, exemplified by a slump in earnings by most of the listed companies connected to construction.

British American Tobacco’s profit grew a whopping 69 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 on the back of lower operating costs whereas most companies bled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The government’s decision to use the surplus funds of state-run companies, including listed ones, is eroding investor confidence as the move will reduce profits of the companies, according to market analysts.

Eastern Bank’s profits grew at a handsome rate in 2019 thanks to a higher recovery from written-off and classified loans, new client acquisition and deeper penetration both in retail and SME segments despite it being a challenging year for almost every financial institution.

While others have been slowly but surely drawing in new clients, one insurer has been showcasing a dismal performance to such an extent that its gross premium in 2018 reached half of what it was five years back.

The board of directors of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has reported irregularities in posting and paying employees at the bourse that have ultimately increased costs amid decreased output.

Pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh witnessed a slump in profits during the third quarter (January-March) of fiscal 2019-20 following reduced sales of prescription medicine amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.