Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The market capitalisation of the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Thursday hit Tk 80,226 crore, its highest ever mark, due to rise in the share prices in last couple of days.
   The market indicator crossed Tk 80,000 crore mark for the first time as its previous highest was Tk 79,697 crore on January 16. On Wednesday, DSE market capitalisation was Tk 79,059 crore.
   Stock market analysts attributed the upward trend in liquidity inflow to the latest moves taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the capital market regulator.
   On Sunday, the SEC raised the maximum rate of margin loan for merchant banks at 1:1 with effect from February 10 with a view to improving the liquidity situation at the market.
   The regulatory body also reintroduced financial adjustment facility against the trading of shares of ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘G’ and ‘N’ categories from Sunday.
   Stock prices gained on Thursday for the straight second day due to buying spree from the investors, said operators.
   The DSE general index gained 55.51 points or 1.89 per cent to close at 3000.17, while its blue chips index, DSE20, advanced by 32.69 points or 1.39 per cent to close at 2381.08.
   Chittagong Stock Exchange’s selective categories index gained 89.31 points or 1.85 per cent to close at 4911.89, while its blue chips index, CSE30, advanced by 145.61 points or 2.18 per cent to close at 6826.10.
   The market capitalisation at the CSE increased to Tk 64,361 crore from the Wednesday’s Tk 63,280 crore.
   Turnover at the DSE also increased to Tk 271.67 crore from the Wednesday’s Tk 195.91 crore and the CSE turnover went up to Tk 53.67 crore from Tk 40.46 crore. On Tuesday, the DSE and the CSE recorded their highest ever turnovers with Tk 372.37 crore and Tk 65.86 crore respectively.
   Of the total 232 issues traded at the DSE, 176 advanced, 49 declined and seven remained unchanged, and out of 145 issues traded at the CSE, 106 posted gains, 33 dropped and six remained unchanged.

The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, said on Thursday that the market capitalisation at the bourses would double in 2008 as a number of telecommunications companies and state-owned enterprises are expected to make their debuts at the stock market this year.
   ‘I expect that the country’s capital market will see another robust year after significant growth in 2007,’ said the SEC chairman at a press briefing at the commission’s office in Dhaka.
   On Thursday, the Dhaka Stock Exchange recorded its highest ever market capitalisation at Tk 80,226 crore.
   The SEC chief said turnover at the bourses would also grow significantly in 2008. ‘The year, however, will be a challenging one for the country’s capital market,’ he forecasted.
   He said the regulatory body recently raised the margin loan ratio to 1:1 for the merchant banks effective from February 10 and reintroduced financial adjustment facility from Sunday with a view to improving the liquidity situation in the market.
   The ratio depicts the value of the collateral in relation to the loan. As the ratio is set at 1:1, the clients will get loans that are same the value of the collaterals and under the financial adjustment or netting facility, the investors are allowed to buy stocks with the sale proceeds immediately after completing a sale.
   ‘The market was going through shortage of liquidity inflow due to offloading shares of Jamuna Oil Company, Meghna Petroleum and IFIC Bank,’ he said.
   He said recently the government pulled out around Tk 1,000 crore from the market selling shares of the two SoEs under direct listing and its shares in IFIC Bank.
   In response to a question, he said the SEC had to put restriction on the margin loan and to suspend financial adjustment facility to protect the stock market from a volatile situation due to sharp rise in share prices and the huge liquidity flow in the market.
   ‘The commission had to be proactive to safeguard the interest of the retail investors, who flocked the market for quick capital gains seeing the continuous rise in the share prices,’ he said.
   Now, the situation is different and the commission has withdrawn all the restrictions and suspension imposed earlier in the second half of last year, he said.
   He, however, advised the investors to put their funds on shares after evaluating companies’ fundamentals. ‘The commission will keep eyes open so that instability does not occur in the market again.’
   Farhad Ahmed, executive director of the SEC, said that the commission had to take moves for containing market from the later half of last year as the share prices were rising continuously and there was no price correction measures in the market earlier.
   The commission had to take a number of steps in the unusual situations, he said adding that ‘Those were not policy decisions; rather, were taken to tackle the situations.’
   SEC members and officials were also present at the press briefing.

The Dhaka International Trade Fair-2008 concluded on Thursday with the manufacturers receiving around Tk 30 crore spot orders for export, out of targeted for Tk 40 crore.
   Last year, the local producers received spot orders of about Tk 26 crore, fair officials said.
   The government earned revenue of Tk 30 lakh as VAT while 30.40 lakh visitors visited the exhibition that began on January 1.
   Addressing the closing ceremony of the DITF, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman announced that a permanent DITF venue with structures would be set up within next two years.
   Either the old airport at Tejgaon or any other suitable place in the capital would be selected for the permanent venue of the DITF, he said.
   Export Promotion Bureau and Commerce Ministry were arranging the DITF at Agargaon in the city with temporary arrangement during the last 13 years.
   The Commerce adviser informed that an agreement had been signed with China, which would provide 210 million RMB (Chinese currency) to build the permanent venue for the international trade fair.
   He advised the DITF organisers to arrange the fair with
   multidimensional target to attract both the local and foreign buyers.
   ‘You have to change your outlook by giving attention not only to the present exporters, but also to the future exporters,’ Zillur told the organisers.
   He also advised them to take steps so that the manufacturers from all over the country could showcase their products at the month-long fair to attract the buyers from home and abroad.
   Commerce secretary Firoz Ahmed also spoke at the concluding session and said the government would arrange the DITF from January 1 every year.
   Urging the local manufacturers to diversify their export items, he said the country’s 90 per cent of export earnings come from only nine products. ‘We should reduce dependence on these items.’
   The government-appointed FBCCI administrator Syed Manzur Elahi while speaking on the occasion urged the government to involve the private sector, particularly different
   trade bodies, in arranging the trade fair.
   ‘This will enrich the private sector’s experience to carry out such job,’ he said.
   EPB vice-chairman Md Shahab Ullah said his organisation would always be keen to extend all-out supports to the foreign buyers of Bangladeshi products.

The chief executives of companies in the Asia-Pacific region continue to show growing confidence, says a global survey of chief executives by international accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
   It said the confidence reflected the fact that many local companies continued to be the economic growth engine that had driven the region’s prosperity for more than a decade.
   The survey of chief executives around the world showed that 56 per cent of them had expressed confidence in their corporate strength last year, compared with 49 per cent in 2006.
   However, only 50 per cent of them were confident of revenue growth in the next 12 months, compared with 52 per cent a year earlier.
   PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a statement that this split in confidence levels suggested the coming year should provide a valuable indication of the rate at which the global economy could continue to expand, despite falling confidence levels in the traditional growth engines of the West.
   This is a particularly pertinent issue, given the current volatile global economic conditions brought on by fears of a US recession.
   Higher confidence in the Asia-Pacific is in line with the expectation that Asia will take a lead in prospective merger and acquisition activity, the firm said, adding that a further reflection of higher levels of business confidence among Asian CEOs is their interest in cross-border M&A in the next 12 months.
   However, they are also keen to stay close to home, with 73 per cent of Asian chief executives preferring to make their deals within the Asia-Pacific area.
   Globally, the region also attracts the most attention, with 37 per cent of chief executives wanting to make a transaction.
   Despite fears of a global economic downturn, 23 per cent of Asian CEOs have completed cross-border deals within the past 12 months, and 34 per cent — a higher percentage than in any other region — say they intend to do so within the next 12 months.
   Matthew Wyborn, the chief executive of Pricewaterhouse-Coopers Mekong, which covers Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, said a surprising result from the survey was that CEOs of very large companies lost more sleep over such issues than those running smaller operations, even though big companies typically had more experience of doing cross-border deals.
   ‘Forty-seven per cent of chief executives heading companies with revenues in excess of $10 billion worry about handling cultural conflicts and capturing the value of the deals they undertake,’ he said.
   Moreover, new players from developing countries — including sovereign wealth funds with massive cash reserves in Asia and the oil-rich Middle East and companies in fast-growing economies — prefer to invest in both China and India.
   ‘This surge in outbound investment has sparked protectionist sensibilities in certain quarters,’ Wyborn said.

Commercial banks have made trade financing rather difficult for businesses in spite of the government’s call for cooperating with the private sector in restoring business confidence, trade bodies complained to the central bank.
   A number of trade bodies including the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry made the allegations to Bangladesh Bank that banks made the trade financing procedure more complicated and lengthy, said a central bank official.
   In some cases banks did not cooperate at all with the businessmen, said the official quoting the trade body executives.
   The central bank has taken the matter seriously and already instructed the banks to take necessary and urgent steps to simplify the trade financing, he said.
   Clients are swamped by unnecessary queries as banks seemed to have remained indifferent to the repeated calls from the finance adviser and central bank governor for helping trade and investment overcome the shocks from drives against graft and tax evasion.
   Non-cooperation from banks is hampering industrialisation, and small and fledgling industries are suffering the most, the central bank official pointed out.
   The private sector needs to diversify export basket and increase productivity using modern technologies, for which they must have easy access to bank loans, he added.

Sri Lanka earned a record one billion dollars from tea exports last year despite a drop in volumes, the island’s tea board said Thursday.
   Sri Lanka, the world’s largest exporter of tea after Kenya, earned 1.03 billion dollars in 2007, compared to 881.2 million dollars in 2006, the Sri Lanka Tea Board said.
   ‘This is the first time our exports have surpassed a billion dollars in the 141-year tea industry,’ the board said.
   In volume terms, exports of Sri Lankan tea known as ‘Pure Ceylon Tea’ fell to 311.75 million kilograms in 2007, down from 327.41 million kilograms a year earlier.
   Russia and former Soviet republics were the largest market for Sri Lankan tea and accounted for nearly a fifth of the total tea exports.
   ‘Liberalisation of tea markets such as Iran, Iraq and Libya will boost demand for Ceylon Tea this year,’ commodity brokers Asia Siyaka said.
   Sri Lanka’s high quality aromatic teas are made with tender leafs and buds of the plant botanically known as Camellia Sinenis.

The export-import through the Benapole Land Port resumed on Thursday as the 24-hour general strike called by the Indian leftist party Forward Block across the West Bengal state, including the Petrapole Land Port, was over.
   The Forward Block enforced a 24-hour general strike on Wednesday to protest at the killing of some party activists by the West Bengal policemen, which was over on Thursday morning.
   Due to the strike, the export-import through Benapole port came to a halt on Wednesday. A good number of trucks laden with goods remained stranded on both Bangladesh and Indian sides.

The finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam Thursday advised the leather and leather goods manufacturers and exporters to submit through the Industries Ministry a concrete proposal on the problems faced by them.
   ‘Specific proposals through the Industries Ministry will be considered in package,’ he told reporters, after a meeting at the Finance Ministry with a delegation from the leather industry.
   Aziz said the banks and clients should settle interest waiver on their relationship under the interest waiver guideline. The government is going to formulate an interest waiver guideline soon, he added.
   The delegation comprising leaders of Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters’ Association and Bangladesh Tanners Association was led by BFLLFEA chairman Mohammad Tipu Sultan.

Driven by increased use of technology by small and mid-sized businesses, the country’s information and communication technology market is estimated to grow 20.3 per cent annually to reach $24.3b by 2011, industry research firm Gartner said on Thursday.
   ‘The growth will be driven by chief information officers continuing to build and consolidate the basic IT infrastructure, in addition to small and mid-size businesses increasingly leveraging technology to drive business growth and efficiency,’ it said.
   The total Indian ICT market was 9.6 billion dollar in 2006, including hardware and software.
   Though worldwide IT budgets are expected to increase by 3.3 per cent in 2008, slightly higher than 2007, the Indian firms would report stronger-than-average IT budget increases of around 13 per cent.
   ‘This increased spending by Indian CIOs is directed primarily towards building new business capabilities, with 30 per cent of IT spend allocated for business growth and 19 per cent towards business transformation,’ the firm said.
   The Indian technology landscape was evolving rapidly, driven by continued growth in the offshore services sector with strong domestic growth.
   Indian firms are spending their budgets more on hardware and software than on people, Gartner said, adding this is significant as Indian firms continue to build out their infrastructure.
   The HR component of the IT budget would grow as the emphasis shifts from implementing standard (generic) solutions to creating unique products and services, it added.

India’s economy is forecast to expand by 8.7 per cent in the current financial year ending March as farm and manufacturing output slow from last year’s rapid pace, the government said Thursday.
   The country’s gross domestic product expanded by 9.6 per cent in the year ended March 2007, the second fastest rate for a major Asian economy behind China.
   But in the current year growth for the farm sector, about a quarter of the economy in the nation of 1.1 billion, is expected to slow to 2.6 per cent, compared to a 3.8 per cent rise a year ago, the government said.
   Manufacturing growth is also expected to slow to 9.4 per cent, compared to a 12 per cent rise a year ago.
   India’s finance minister P Chidambaram last week said he hoped the economy would again expand more than nine per cent this year after official data showed growth of 9.1 per cent in the first half ended September.

A slowdown in the US economy will affect China, but maybe in a positive way, according to Chinese economists and analysts.
   ‘The financial tsunami in the US will have a negative result on Chinese exports,’ said Wang Tongsan, director of the Institute of Quantitative and Technological Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
   Wang noted that ‘a drop of one percentage point in American gross domestic product would lead to a five percentage-point decline in the growth rate of Chinese exports.’
   However, Zheng Jingping, a researcher with the National Statistics Bureau, noted that it was not export growth but the trade surplus that would be the key issue.
   ‘The major source of Chinese exports is processing trade,’ he said. ‘We import raw material before exporting it as finished goods. Therefore, it is still unknown if the trade surplus would see a sharp decline.’
   A smaller trade surplus would not be so bad, Zheng added. ‘A reduction is good to ease international pressure, adjust the economic structure and enlarge domestic demand,’ he said.
   Zheng’s view was shared by Fan Gang, director of the National Economic Research Institute of the China Reform Foundation.
   ‘The Chinese economy, despite its continuous growth, has a structural problem,’ he said. ‘If a drop of external demand could lead to adjustment, the change would be positive. Maybe this change would be a little uncomfortable’ for some, but overheating of the economy could be ‘very uncomfortable’.’
   International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned that ‘all the world’s countries are suffering from the slowdown in growth in the United States, at least all developed countries.’ His words have been borne out by stock markets around the world.
   World share markets plummeted last month and markets in Europe had their biggest one-day losses on January 21 since the September 11 attacks on the United States, prompted by turmoil in the US sub-prime mortgage sector.
   China maintained fast economic growth last year, with gross domestic product up about 11.4 per cent.
   However, this week the World Bank cut its forecast for China’s 2008 economic growth to 9.6 per cent in its latest China Quarterly Update. It said that China’s economic growth had begun to decelerate from its record high in 2007, after external demand slowed in the fourth quarter.
   Discussing how to cope with the challenge, Xia Bin, the director of the Research Institute of Finance, which is under the official think tank Development Research Center of the State Council, pointed out that China should persist in its tight monetary policy.
   He said that it should make fewer interest rate adjustments during the first half of the year to leave more space for policy choices later.
   While the US dollar had been depreciating faster, the appreciation of the renminbi had become more obvious.
   ‘Expectations of appreciation are worse than appreciation itself,’ Xia said. ‘China should dance to its own tune in exchange rate reform.’
   Yu Yongding, director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics under CASS, said that China should take the opportunity to stimulate domestic demand. Yu said that doing so would help workers who lost their jobs due to changes in export growth find new jobs.
   ‘The aggressive series of rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve would limit China’s use of the interest rate lever,’ said Wu Xiaoling, former vice president of the People’s Bank of China. ‘Other measures might be taken to control the amount of money circulating in the market.’

In confiding World Bank research services to a Chinese economist, president Robert Zoellick has signaled to emerging-market countries his desire to see their representation grow, without taking major risks.
   Justin Lin Yifu, the founding director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, was appointed Monday the chief economist of the multilateral development lender, succeeding Frenchman Francois Bourguignon in May.
   He will be the first economist of a developing country to occupy the post, which has been held by such luminaries as Stanley Fischer, Lawrence Summers and 2001 Nobel laureate in economics, Joseph Stiglitz.
   ‘In some ways this is a stroke of genius on Bob Zoellick’s part,’ said Dennis de Tray, vice-president of the Center for Global Development, a think tank in Washington.
   ‘He’s got himself a good economist who has an international reputation, who has solid credentials in probably the most important emerging-market economy,’ de Tray said.
   At the same time the Bank president is sending ‘a clear signal to the middle-income countries that are one of Zoellick’s six priorities areas, that he is serious about bringing them into the tent.’
   Daniel Bradlow, a law professor and director of the International Legal Studies Program at American University in the US capital, agreed.
   ‘It does suggest more openness in Zoellick in having emerging markets occupy positions of influence in the Bank,’ Bradlow said.
   More specifically, ‘it’s part of the China charm offensive,’ the law professor said, referring to efforts by Zoellick, a former US trade representative, to persuade China to contribute in a more coordinated fashion its aid to the poorest countries.
   China, considered a major rival to the multilateral lenders, particularly in Africa, joined in December a group of new contributor countries to the International Development Association, the arm of the Bank that helps the poorest countries.
   However, the appointment of Lin, though fraught with symbolism, is not exactly a first, Bradlow observed.
   It was the second time that Zoellick, who took office in early July, has given a senior post to a representative of the developing world, after the nomination of a former Nigerian finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as a managing director in charge of the Africa, South Asia, and Europe and Central Asia regions.
   Lin is not the first Chinese to be named to a position of senior responsibility at the Bank. Under the presidency of James Wolfensohn, Shengman Zhang occupied effectively the number-two post, Bradlow noted.
   Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, pointed out that the World Bank chief economist has no executive power.
   ‘You saw what happened when Joseph Stiglitz was chief economist and tried to move the Bank a little bit in a different direction — they got rid of him,’ Weisbrot said, referring to Stiglitz’s tumultuous departure from the Bank, before he won the Nobel Prize.
   ‘It might mean that the research agenda of the Bank becomes more attuned to the concerns of emerging markets as opposed to the poorest countries,’ he added.
   But few shakeups appeared to be expected. Despite his origins and his atypical career, Lin, who earned a doctorate of economics at the University of Chicago, is a pure product of the liberal ideology that dominates the World Bank and its sister Bretton Woods institution, the International Monetary Fund, Weisbrot said.
   ‘The chief economist at the Bank is going to be another person educated at a top Western university and that suggests probably his views are not going to be all that radically different from previous chief economists, and maybe more conservative than some in the past.’

The woes in the US financial sector are ‘poetic justice’ for bankers who designed and sold complex investments that have since gone sour, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on Wednesday.
   The head of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc group of companies also played down worries about a credit crunch by saying that recent interest rate cuts mean low-cost funds are readily available.
   But he warned that the US dollar will continue to slide unless the country can rein in its yawning trade deficit — the ‘biggest factor’ behind the decline. Still, he said, the US economy will ‘do very well over time.’
   Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest people, appeared to see irony in the fact that many of the banks who marketed complex investments which have now crashed are bearing much of the fallout.
   ‘It’s sort of a little poetic justice, in that the people that brewed this toxic Kool-Aid found themselves drinking a lot of it in the end,’ he said.
   Buffett, a legendary investor who has amassed a huge fortune through plays in a wide range of industries, has bet against the US dollar in the past.
   In 2005, Berkshire had made a $21.8 billion bet that the US dollar would fall. It later unwound that successful position as it found other non-U.S. investments.
   Buffett said on Wednesday in Toronto that the turmoil that has rocked the US economy in recent months has imbued the markets with a healthy degree of caution, while the rate-cutting response from central bankers has ensured that cheap money remains available for borrowing.
   ‘I wouldn’t quite call it a credit crunch. Funds are available,’ Buffett said during a question and answer session at a business event. ‘Money is available, and it’s really quite cheap because of the lowering of rates that has taken place.’
   He added: ‘What has happened is a re-pricing of risk and an unavailability of what I might call ‘dumb money,’ of which there was plenty around a year ago.’
   Buffet was in Toronto for the Canadian launch of corporate-news firm Business Wire, which Berkshire bought in 2006.
   Buffett tends to favor companies with relatively simple businesses, strong management, consistent earnings, good returns on equity, and little debt.
   As of late last year, Berkshire’s businesses employed about 220,000 people and the number is growing as the group continues to expand its portfolio of companies. The units generated a $10.27 billion profit on revenue of $90.2 billion from January to September.

The US Senate failed Wednesday to advance its own version of an economic stimulus program, boosting the odds for a White House-backed version approved last week by the House of Representatives.
   Backers fell short of the 60 votes needed to end debate and bring the measure to the floor for passage, with the tally 58-41 in favour.
   The vote came amid wrangling in Congress over the details of the stimulus of some 150 billion dollars to help boost flagging growth by giving tax rebates and business incentives.
   The House-passed measure calls for checks of up to 600 dollars for individual taxpayers and up to 1,200 dollars for couples, plus additional cash for dependent children.
   Democratic leaders in the Senate sought to expand the measure by extending rebates to an additional 20 million elderly Americans living on social security benefits, veterans and others with low incomes. It also lengthens unemployment benefits.
   The Senate version would cost more, at around 157 billion dollars, but the rebates for taxpayers would be reduced to 500 dollars for an individual and 1,000 for a couple. The Senate plan would include extra unemployment benefits as well.
   Although most lawmakers are eager to approve a program to help revive an economy that some say is on the brink of recession, the next step was unclear after the failure of the Senate plan. But the failure of the Senate Democratic plan could pressure the chamber to pass the House version.
   The White House warned the Senate Wednesday that time was of the essence.
   ‘Our first and foremost goal is delivering relief to American consumers and businesses to boost our economy,’ White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.
   ‘To be effective, this economic growth package must be timely, so it is crucial that the Senate now move quickly to pass a bill that will deliver relief to our economy,’ she said.
   Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said after the vote that he would have ‘a conversation’ with his Republican leader on the next course of action.
   Some Republicans this week offered to vote on the House bill with an amendment to allow seniors and veterans to receive a rebate, but no other additions.
   President George W Bush warned the Senate last week not to ‘load’ up the bill with excessive payouts or benefits or extraneous conditions.
   Reid and other Democrats chided Republicans for blocking the bill.

The Apollo Hospitals Dhaka recently signed a corporate agreement with the First Security Bank Limited to provide medical services and special corporate benefits to their staff.
   Shahjahan Majumder FCA, director-finance of Apollo
   hospitals Dhaka, And AAM Zakaria, managing director of First Security Bank Limited, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations, in the capital, said a press release.
   Senior executives from both the organisations were present at the deal signing function.

European aircraft maker Airbus said Thursday that the global aircraft market would be worth 2.8 trillion dollars between 2007 and 2026, with total production at 24,300 planes.
   Airbus gave the figures as it unveiled its latest long-term outlook for the aerospace industry at a press conference in London.
   The figures are higher than previous predictions given two years ago, when Airbus forecast that the global market would be worth 2.6 trillion dollars for 2006-2025 with production of 22,700 planes.
   Airbus said Thursday the industry would deliver an average of 1,215 aircraft per year during the period, compared with the previous annual average prediction of 1,130 plane deliveries.
   Higher aircraft production will help meet a 4.9 per cent annual increase in passenger traffic and a 5.8 per cent annual rise in freight traffic, according to the group’s forecasts.

The World Trade Organisation said Wednesday that Bruce Gosper, Australia’s ambassador to the global trade body, had been named chair of its General Council.
   Gosper is currently chair of the WTO’s chief arbitration panel, the Dispute Settlement Body.
   He replaces Malaysia’s ambassador Muhamad Noor, and will be replaced in his turn as DSB head by Chile’s ambassador Mario Matus.
   The WTO’s General Council comprises all the ambassadors of the 151 member states.

Kazakhstan’s prime minister Karim Masimov threatened to seize oil fields and mineral deposits from private investors on Thursday following a series of disputes with top Western energy majors.
   ‘If contractual obligations for the development of mineral resource deposits are not respected, the contracts will be cancelled and the deposits will be returned to the state,’ Masimov told a government meeting.
   Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia located between China and Russia, is rich in natural resources including oil, gold and uranium. Western investors have flocked to the country since independence in 1991.
   But the climate for foreign investors has worsened in recent months and the authorities have accused Western energy majors such as Italy’s ENI and US company Chevron of failing to respect contracts for some of the biggest new oil fields in the world.
   President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan with an iron fist since 1990, has called for a bigger role for the state in the energy sector. Critics have accused the authorities of engaging in economic nationalism.

The dollar dipped against the euro on Thursday but rose against sterling ahead of interest rate decisions from the European Central Bank and Bank of England.
   Traders were also cautious about a weekend meeting of world finance chiefs in Tokyo where recent financial market turmoil and fears of a global economic slowdown are set to top the agenda.
   Activity was subdued due to market holidays in many Asian countries for the Lunar New Year. In European trade on Thursday, the euro firmed to 1.4638 dollars from 1.4633 dollars in New York late on Wednesday.
   Against the Japanese currency, the dollar slipped to 106.50 yen from 106.56.
   Dealers were betting that the European Central Bank (ECB) would leave its interest rates on hold at 4.0 per cent at a meeting Thursday due to worries about upward price pressures in the eurozone.
   ‘Given high inflation, it looks to be too premature to start talking about the possibility of a rate cut’ in the eurozone, said Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ chief analyst Osamu Takashima.
   ‘If so, the euro is most likely to maintain its rising trend against the dollar.’
   Investors will be closely watching remarks from ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, who is scheduled to speak after the rate decision, for any signs of a softening in the bank’s policy stance.
   The Bank of England (BoE), meanwhile, was widely tipped to trim its key interest rates by a quarter point to 5.25 per cent as it seeks to bolster flagging growth while containing inflationary pressures. The BoE’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee was set to announce a quarter-point decrease, according to most economists.
   A cut by the British central bank would follow moves by the US Federal Reserve to slash 1.25 per centage points off its key rate in January amid worries that the American economy could fall into recession.
   Jitters ahead of Saturday’s meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations in Tokyo were deterring players from active trading, dealers said.
   The dollar had drawn some support after a warning from the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Charles Plosser, about the potential dangers of inflation, dealers said.
   His remarks sparked concern that the Fed may have only limited scope for further rate cuts if inflationary pressures mount, they added.
   In Europe on Thursday, the euro changed hands at 1.4638 dollars against 1.4633 late Wednesday, at 155.88 yen, 0.7491 pounds and 1.6033 Swiss francs.
   The dollar stood at 106.50 yen and 1.0950 Swiss francs.
   The pound was at 1.9541 dollars.

Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday but remained under pressure from volatile global stock markets ahead of crucial energy stockpiles data in the United States, traders said.
   The market found some support from ongoing violence in Nigeria, which is the largest crude producer on the African continent. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, rose 16 cents to 88.57 dollars per barrel.
   Brent North Sea crude for March delivery gained 23 cents to 89.05 dollars. Prices were ‘still under pressure from persistent economic jitters,’ said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.
   ‘Crude prices are taking their cue from broader markets, as equities continue to dictate direction for most commodities.’
   European stocks faced another turbulent day on Wednesday after another major sell-off on Wall Street and the Asian markets that was sparked by growing fears of a US recession, dealers said.

Dividend
   AMCL (Pran)
   The company has requested the concerned shareholders to collect their dividend warrants for the year 2006-2007 from the registered office of the company at 12 on R K Mission Road in Dhaka from February 16 to 24.
   
   Dulamia Cotton
   The company has requested the concerned shareholders to collect their dividend warrants for the year 2006-2007 from the head office of the company at the Anchor Tower at 108 on Bir Uttam C R Datta Road in Dhaka from February 9 to 11.
   
   Net asset value
   Aims 1st Mutual Fund
   On the close of operation on January 31, the fund has reported net asset value of Tk 2.72 per share against face value of Tk 1.00 whereas net assets of the fund stood at Tk 45,63,30,266.
   
   Grameen Mutual Fund One
   On the close of operation on January 31, the fund has reported net asset value of Tk 28.80 per share against face value of Tk 10.00 whereas net assets of the fund stood at Tk 48,96,50,015.
   
   Response to DSE query
   Pragati Insurance
   In response to a DSE query, the company has informed that there is no undisclosed price sensitive information of the company for recent unusual price hike.
   
   AGM
   Samorita Hospital
   The company has further informed that the 22nd annual general meeting of the company will be held at the LGED auditorium at LGED Bhaban at Agargaon at Sher-E-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.
   
   Spot trade
   Confidence Cement
   Trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the spot market (block/odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle) on February 10 and trading of the shares will remain suspended during February 11-13 for finalisation of the demat process.

Repo auction held
The Repo auction of the commercial banks and financial institutions was held at the Bangladesh Bank on Thursday, February 07,2008. 1 bid of 31 day tenor amounting to Tk.100.00 crore was received but that bid was not accepted, said après release of the Bangladesh Bank.
— New Age

BSB earns Tk 18.44cr net profit
Bangladesh Shilpa Bank earned a pre-tax net profit of Tk 18.44 crore during the first half of 2007-08 fiscal year which was Tk 5.29 crore higher than that of the corresponding year. This was disclosed at the 512th meeting of the board of directors of BSB held at the bank’s head office with its chairman Mohammad Aminul Islam Bhuiyan in the chair on Wednesday. Managing director in-charge Nazmul Bari informed the meeting that BSB recovered loan amounting to Tk 47.50 crore during the same period, which was 53 per cent of the annual target. He also informed that it would be possible to exceed the annual recovery target and earn more profit than the previous year.
— UNB

Dhaka signs 3 agreements with WB
Bangladesh on Thursday signed three agreements with the World Bank for financial assistance in three projects involving 70 million US dollars. M Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, secretary, Economic Relations Division, and Xian Zhu, country director, World Bank, Dhaka, signed the agreements on behalf of the Bangladesh government and the World Bank respectively at a ceremony at the ERD, Sher-e- Bangla Nagar in the city, said a Finance Ministry press release. Under the financing agreements, 70 million US dollars will be reallocated from four ongoing WB-financed projects for the purpose of reconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructure damage and losses caused by floods in 2007. The three ongoing projects to get the additional fund are Social Investment Project ($25 million), Municipal Service Project ($25 million), and Rural Transport Improvement Project ($20 million). Another amount of 52.2 million US dollars will be used through reallocation within seven ongoing projects for restoration purpose.
— BSS