Unusual price hike of 10 stocks raises questions
Ten companies saw their share prices soar abnormally in the first half of July for no apparent reason.
“This is not a good sign for the capital market,” said Mohammed Rahmat Pasha, managing director and chief executive of UCB Capital Management.
All the companies denied when quizzed by the DSE if there was any undisclosed information for which the share price was shooting up.
Legacy Footwear saw the highest price hike during the period: its share price more than doubled to Tk 167.50 within ten trading sessions, according to data from the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
Dragon Sweater saw the next highest rise in its share price: 78.17 percent.
It was followed by HR Textile at 53.10 percent, KDS Accessories 48.31, Sinobangla Industries 39 percent, Pacific Denims 38.75 percent, Anwar Galvanizing 38.68, Saiham Textile Mills 32.26, Peninsula Chittagong 34.19 percent and Shahjibazar Power 33.45 percent.
General investors should be careful about buying these companies' shares as their prices can plummet as fast as they soared, Pasha said.
“Some people are playing with the low-cap companies as it is easy to play with them,” he said, while urging the stockmarket regulator to find out who are engaging in such mischievous behaviour.
The paid-up capital of Legacy Footwear is Tk 11.37 crore, HR Textile Tk 25.30 crore, Sinobangla Industries Tk 19.99 crore and Anwar Galvanising Tk 14.52 crore, according to DSE data.
Several DSE brokers said trading of some of the stocks was halted in the last few days as there were no sellers, which prompted the share prices to soar.
KAM Majedur Rahman, managing director of the DSE, said the bourse's regulatory department is working with Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission to find out if there is any market manipulation in play.
The DSE has already sent a query notice to the companies about unusual price hike, though they all said the same thing: there is no reason for the price hike.
The next step would be stopping their trade and investigating the unusual price hike, he said.
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