Shares on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) rose yesterday as investors continued to maintain a high rate of trade over the past 10 days with hopes of a further increase in the stock prices.

Garment exports to the US, the biggest market for Bangladeshi products, declined by around 25 percent year-on-year to $7.28 billion last year for a slowdown in imports by American fashion retailers and brands due to high inflationary pressure.

Retail investors’ stakes in the share market of Bangladesh have nearly halved in the last 12 years as they are increasingly losing their appetite for stocks owing to a lacklustre market performance.

Bangladesh Bank’s banking sector reform roadmap of last week will come to no use if the implementation failures of previous roadmaps cannot be understood, said eminent economist Wahiduddin Mahmud yesterday.

Reforming the Bangladesh banking sector is long overdue considering the ongoing struggles, such as liquidity issues, poor resource management, capital crises, and underperforming loans and their potential ripple effect on the economy. Forced bank mergers have been the talk of the town in recent times. But we have seen most of the "known to be good banks" quite confused and concerned about the possible measures.

Brokerage firms in Bangladesh are increasingly encouraging stock investors to invest in treasury bonds as the risk-free securities are offering lucrative returns, which are higher than the deposit rate in the banking sector.

The Bangladesh Bank yesterday instructed nine banks, including four state-run lenders, to transfer officials who have been in charge of their foreign exchange booths at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for more than one year.

Bangladesh Bank has asked banks to take measures in order to encourage their employees to adopt the government’s Universal Pension Scheme.

Policy and regulatory uncertainties are major factors discouraging foreigners from investing in Bangladesh, for which foreign direct investment (FDI) has remained low in spite of government efforts, said Syed Akhtar Mahmood, former lead private sector specialist at World Bank Group

Bangladesh is likely to receive the third tranche of the International Monetary Fund’s $4.7 billion loan as the country has met almost all conditions, said Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali yesterday.

Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserves rose $14 million in a week to about $19.96 billion, central bank figures showed.

Bangladesh shipped apparel goods worth $650 million to Russia in the financial year of 2020-21 and was tipped soon to be crossing the $1-billion mark in the promising market.

The industries ministry is going to award Tangail sari the geographical indication (GI) status following a public outcry in Bangladesh, a week after India granted the same recognition to ‘Tangail Saree of Bengal’.

The highly promising home textile sector of Bangladesh is losing its lustre in the export market as the lingering gas crisis, the volatile exchange rate and the higher production cost are forcing many factories to go out of business.

Investors in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar (BSMSN) are not only facing an acute gas crisis, but also contending with virtually zero water supply to industrial units despite paying water bills, forcing them to set up their own water supply systems.

Recently the Bangladesh Bank projected a significant drop in non-performing loans (NPLs) and is hoping that it will decrease by 2.76 percent over the next couple of years. This estimation came in Bangladesh Bank's roadmap on the strategic move to streamline NPL management.

The major stock market index in Bangladesh rose for an eighth consecutive trading day yesterday owing to increased participation of investors.

Emerald Oil is planning to invest Tk 400 crore on a new plant in the Jamalpur Economic Zone to increase its production of rice bran oil for export.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has lifted the floor price for three more companies—Anwar Galvanizing, Orion Pharmaceuticals and Renata—amid a rising trend of the key index.

Mobile operators in Bangladesh are now offering app stores, enabling developers to not only connect with users through secure distribution channels but also giving them the monetisation tools as they continually attempt to diversify their portfolio.