Monday, 25 July 2016

Stock closes week flat on lower demand

Stock market
Stock market closed Thursday flat on lower demand when investors were largely selling mood for profit-booking from offloading the shares they booked earlier at cheaper prices.

The daily average transaction, however, increased compared to last week, but was not enough to make the market vibrant.

The week at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) began upward, but ended flat in red, with the DSEX closing at 4553.7843, the DS30 at 1779.28 and the DSES at 1114.25.

Compared to last week's close, DSEX and DS30 ended flat in green while the DSES was marginally down. Read More Bbarta24.net

BTRC to adjust unpaid amount of 13 IIG operators from PDG

BTRC
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has decided to adjust the unpaid amount from the performance bank guarantee (PBG) of 13 international internet gateway (IIG) operators, as they have failed to pay various dues to the government.

According to the officials of the telecom regulator, the IIG operators are owed around Taka 50 lakh to the government as the operators have failed to share of their revenue in the last quarter while some of the operators are yet to deposit their due of license renewal fees.

Talking to BSS, BTRC Spokesperson and Secretary Sarwar Alam said they would issue letter to the defaulter operators in next week as per the decision of commission meeting. Read More Bbarta24.net

Bangladesh to negotiate with India, Bhutan over bandwidth export

Bhutan over bandwidth export
With the aim of capturing the market of eight eastern states of India and Bhutan, Bangladesh is going to negotiate with them to export the unused bandwidth.

To this end, a team of Bangladesh led by state minister for posts and
telecommunications Tarana Halim would fly to India and Bhutan by the end of this week to discuss with the authorities of the countries.

Indian state of Tripura has been importing 10 gbps bandwidth from
Bangladesh since March this year, but the volume is small against their demand. Read More Bbarta24.net

Shimanto Bank opens next month

Shimanto Bank opens next month
Border Guard Bangladesh's (BGB) Shimanto Bank will start its operation from next month for the welfare of its members, reports BSS.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to inaugurate the Shimanto Bank in the first week of August at a programme at BGB headquarters in the city, said a press release on Saturday.

With the beginning of new journey of this public sector bank, a brainchild of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the long-cherished dream of Border Guards of Bangladesh would be fulfilled. Read More Bbarta24.net

BB to unveil monetary policy Tuesday

Bangladesh Bank
Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Fazle Kabir will unveil the monetary policy statement (MPS) for the first half of the current 2016-17 financial year (FY17) on Tuesday at 11 am at the central bank headquarters in the city, reportes BSS.

The governor of BB will also brief journalists the outcome of the current MPS in managing inflation, driving inflow of private sector credit and propelling economic growth.

BB Chief Economist Biru Paksha Paul told BSS that like previous ones the new MPS had been prepared in line with the national budget, and it would have major focus on areas including credit, GDP (gross domestic product), inflation and exchange rate. Read More Bbarta24.net

Sunday, 24 July 2016

Gold prices slip

Gold prices slip
Gold extended losses on Monday from the previous session as Asian stocks were at near nine-month highs on increasing risk appetite and ahead of central bank meetings in the United States and Japan this week.

Asian shares rose on Monday as worries over the impact of Britain's Brexit vote eased amid efforts to maintain growth, while the dollar was buoyed by a run of solid US economic data.

Spot gold fell 0.4 per cent at $1,317.04 an ounce at 0352 GMT.

Bullion fell 0.7 per cent on Friday, declining for a second successive week. Read More The Financial Express

Currency market remains largely stable after 30-day of Brexit

Currency market
Local currency market remained largely stable after 30 days of the Brexit that had sent a wave of volatility to the global currency market last month.

The pound sterling lost 8.0 percent against US dollars on the first day of trade following Brexit, held on June 23 to pave the way out to the United Kingdom from the 28 nations European Union (EU).

The pound also drifted further on the global market in the past 30 days in post-Brexit trade and hit a 30-year low at $1.29 on July 6 as "investors have selling sterling assets in expectation that the Bank of England will loosen monetary policy to cope with the looming economic slowdown", according an analysis of the British magazine the Economist.

The pound in the local market also witnessed some pressure from the sellers, but the decline in the exchange rate against Taka was not as big as it was on the global market. According to BB, the sterling was traded for Taka 103.55 on Thursday which was 107.24 on June 23. Read More Bbarta24.net

Robi-Airtel merger proposal sent for PM's consent

Robi-Airtel
The merger proposal of Robi-Airtel has been sent to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) for final approval incorporating merger fees of Taka 100 crore.

Posts and Telecommunications Division (PDT) today forwarded a summary of the merger proposal to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her consent, as she is also the minister of ministry of posts, telecommunications and information technology, an official of PDT told BSS on Sunday.

Apart from the merger fees, he said, the PDT has also fixed up Taka 33.8 crore for per Megahertz of 2G spectrum.

Earlier, on July 13, an inter-ministerial meeting, chaired by finance minister A M A Muhith, finalized the merger fees and spectrum prices. Read More Bbarta24.net

Bank hacks raise fears for financial sector

Bank hacks
A series of spectacular cyber attacks against banks, resulting in the theft of tens of millions of dollars, has heightened fears for an industry becoming an increasingly attractive target for hackers.

Banks in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Vietnam and Ecuador have been victimized over the past year in the attacks on the global interbank service known as SWIFT, and some analysts expect more attacks to become public.

After news of the $81 million heist from Bangladesh's central bank became public in May, SWIFT said the incident was "not a single occurrence, but part of a wider and highly adaptive campaign targeting banks." Read More Bbarta24.net

Govt likely to earn $ 5b thru' software export by 2021: Palak

Palak
The government expects earning $ 5 billion from software export by 2021 as the ICT sector earned $ 1 billion in the last fiscal year.

"Our total export earnings reached $ 34 billion during the last seven and a half years of the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak said while replying to a supplementary question in the Jatiya Sangsad on Sunday.

He said the government is setting up Bangabandhu Hi-Teck City aimed at creating around 1 lakh employment for youths by the next 10 years. Read More Bbarta24.net

Five more denim factories likely to come up in Bangladesh

denim factories
Bangladesh has emerged as a strong player in the denim market worldwide. As the demand for denim products is rising globally, local entrepreneurs have also started investing more in this sector. In the last five years five denim factories came into operation in Bangladesh of which four have already gone into production – Square, Nice, Thermax and Badsha. Bangladesh, now in total has thirty denim factories.

Mostafiz Uddin, managing director of Chittagong-based Denim Expert and organiser of Bangladesh Denim Expo that takes place in Dhaka twice a year said that another five companies plan to set up denim factories as the demand is on the rise, especially in the West, the major market of denim.

Earlier, Bangladeshi manufacturers used to produce mainly basic denim products such as trousers, but now they also make shirts, bed sheets, pillow covers, home textiles, aprons and tablecloths.

Production capacity of the denim mills in Bangladesh is more than 40 million yards a month against the demand for nearly 70 million yards. The rest of the demand is met through imports from countries like China, India, Pakistan and Turkey. Read More Bbarta24.net