Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman on Monday joined a farmers’ rally at Chardurgapur village under Singair Upazila in Manikganj and exchanged views with carrot farmers.
   Atiur told farmers that a cold storage would be established there for the greater interest of thousands of carrot farmers.
   Besides, a branch of Krishi Bank would also be opened there, he said.
   Shykh Seraj, director of private television station, Channel i, also joined the programme.
   Later, Atiur joined another programme at Garpara High School playground
   in Manikganj Sadar Upazila and distributed Tk19.5 lakh in loan among eight families for setting up bio-gas plants.
   The Trust Bank will provide the loan. Manikganj DC GM Saleh Uddin presided over the function.

Oil rose in Asian trade on Monday as investors returned to the market after a massive selloff triggered by weak US jobs data and debt woes in the eurozone, analysts said.
   New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, climbed 49 cents to $71.68 a barrel.
   London’s Brent North Sea crude for March was up 46 cents to $70.05 per barrel.
   ‘What we’re seeing is a technical rebound. Investors are taking the opportunity to buy into the market after the massive selloff last week,’ said Serene Lim, a Singapore-based oil analyst with the ANZ bank.
   The markets digested news Friday that the US economy lost 20,000 jobs in January.
   The non-farm payrolls data fell short of expectations for a gain of 15,000 jobs that would have been a clear sign of a turnaround in the troubled labour market and overall economy after a massive stimulus effort by the government.

Karnaphuli Insurance has informed that the board of directors of the company has decided to increase company’s authorised capital from Tk 30.00 crore to Tk 60.00 crore which would be placed before extra ordinary general meeting for approval by the shareholders in due course.
   
   Gemini Sea Food
   As per un-audited quarterly accounts for the 1st quarter ended on 31st December 2009, Gemini Sea Food has reported profit after tax of Tk 0.44 million with EPS of Tk 4.01.
   
   BDCOM Online Ltd
   The SEC has regretted its inability to approve the Rights Issue of BDCOM Online Ltd for the greater interest of shareholders and the capital market.
   
   1st Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha MF
   On the close of operation on February 04, 2010, the Fund has reported net asset value of Tk 1,390.82 per unit on current market price basis and Tk 141.49 per unit on cost price basis against face value of Tk 100.00 whereas net assets of the fund stood at Tk 70,746,194.30.
   
   One Bank
   The SEC has regretted its inability to approve the Rights Issue of One Bank due to non-compliance of Section 10(2) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Rights Issue) Rules, 2006.
   
   FUWANGFOOD
   Sarder Mohammad Ali, one of the directors of the company, has reported his intention to sell 60,000 shares (bonus shares) out of his total holdings of 8,60,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange within next 30 working days.
   
   Agni Systems Ltd
   Worldwide Opportunity Fund (Cayman) Ltd, one of the corporate Sponsors/Directors of the company, has reported its intention to sell 1,00,000 shares out of its total holdings of 9,75,000 shares of the company at prevailing market price through Stock Exchange within next 30 working days.
   Source: DSE

The European single currency held above an eight-month low today after eurozone finance chiefs reassured their Group of Seven counterparts on Greece’s deepening debt troubles, dealers said.
   In morning London trade, the euro firmed to 1.3695 dollars compared with 1.3673 dollars late in New York on Friday, when it had tumbled to 1.3586 dollars — the lowest level since May 20, 2009.
   Against the Japanese currency on Monday, the dollar rose to 89.43 yen from 89.20 late Friday.
   ‘As a new week dawns, the euro continues to remain under pressure after the weekend’s G7 meeting failed to deliver little more than rhetoric with respect to measures to deal with the ongoing problems of how to tackle European sovereign debt issues,’ said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
   ‘The European finance ministers merely confirmed the substance and significance of Greece’s attempts to deal with its deficit on its own without outside interference, amid market fears that politicians are sleep walking into a full-blown debt crisis,’ he added.
   The euro received only a slight lift from remarks by eurozone finance officials at the G7 talks in Canada on Greece’s efforts to rein in its public debt of more than 294 billion euros ($412b).
   ‘The European members of the G7 have confirmed to the other partners of the G7 the substance and the significance of the (debt-reduction) plan put together by Greece, and that they are confident that it will be managed,’ French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said.

The European Union, shaken by Greece’s fiscal crisis and struggling to get its new institutions into gear, hopes to relaunch itself this week as leaders mull improved, coordinated economic governance.
   Europe’s post-recession economic woes, highlighted by the swelling deficits of Greece and others, will be the focus of an European Union summit on Thursday.
   The meeting in Brussels is also notable for being convened by the EU’s first permanent president, Herman Van Rompuy, who has kept a markedly low profile since assuming his unelected role in December.
   He has chosen to invite the 27 leaders to the listed Bibliotheque Solvay, set in a small park, which the former Belgian prime minister hopes will afford some informal wood-panelled coziness.
   The choice will also, unlike former EU summits, keep prying media eyes away.
   Van Rompuy will see it as his first real chance to stamp his imprimatur on the bloc and a test of the EU under its new reforming Lisbon Treaty, which created his post.
   ‘He’s concerned about the increasing chatter about the decline of Europe,’ one senior EU official said.
   Such worries have been heightened recently by Europe’s ineffectual performance at the international climate talks in Copenhagen and the perennial bickering and institutional navel-gazing.
   The global economic crisis which has hit Greece, Spain and Portugal particularly hard, even sparking fears that they could default on debts, adds to the urgency to restore growth and economic cohesion in the bloc, particularly in the 16-nation eurozone.
   British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson attacked the European Union on Sunday for failing to provide stronger international leadership on banking reform.
   ‘European heads of government need to show more of a strategic lead to the EU as a whole,’ the former EU trade commissioner deplored.
   Europe is seeking to do just that, by drawing up a new ‘EU 2020’ strategy for growth over the next ten years, with research, new technologies and green transport to the fore.
   The idea is to replace the European Union’s much-vaunted ‘Lisbon Strategy’, launched in 2000 which is felt in many quarters to have lacked the teeth to make it work.
   The new programme won’t be finalised till June, but the European heads of state and government are expected on Thursday to agree on the main principles.
   They would add to the existing Stability Pact which monitors only national deficits.
   Van Rompuy wants to see a ‘collective effort’ to crank up the growth engine, it’s a question of the survival of Europe’s social model, he warned recently.
   French president Nicolas Sarkozy has spoken of an ‘economic government of the 27’ to a largely unenthusiastic European audience. However more and more capitals are coming round to the idea that there has to be a way to impose fiscal discipline if there is to be an effective common EU approach.
   The Spanish EU presidency has suggested ‘corrective measures’ such as grants and cuts. But the idea of sanctions has elicited stern opposition, notably from Berlin.
   ‘Imagine if the European Union were to say to a member state, don’t carry out this or that reform or you will be punished. Well you’re going to turn public opinion against Europe and against the reforms,’ as one European diplomat said it.
   So the carrot could be used rather than the stick, with the good fiscal students rewarded in terms of funding.
   Secondly European nations could intervene regularly to police each other.
   Last week the European Commission approved Athens’ efforts to tame its deficit crisis but placed Athens under unprecedented economic scrutiny.
   The commission could also issue warnings to those that don’t respect the common rules. However in the final analysis the nations intend to maintain control and limit the capacity of Brussels to intervene in their affairs, a fact which is raising doubts that any new mechanism will be effective.

Japan Airlines, after declaring bankruptcy last month, appeared set on Monday to keep its current tie-up with American Airlines and end talks to defect to the world’s biggest carrier Delta.
   US giants American and Delta Air Lines have been competing to invest in ailing JAL, which filed for bankruptcy with 26 billion dollars of debt in one of Japan’s biggest ever corporate failures.
   Both airlines have circled JAL, hoping to benefit from a new US-Japan ‘open skies’ deal to expand their reach in the lucrative Asia-Pacific aviation market. The market last year surpassed North America as the world’s largest.
   Japanese media had previously said JAL planned to switch to the SkyTeam alliance of Delta and ditch American’s Oneworld alliance, which also includes British Airways and Qantas.
   But newspapers including the Nikkei business daily, and NHK television, said JAL’s new management and the government’s Enterprise Turnaround Initiative of Japan believe the switch would be costly and risky.
   The embattled carrier feared that a switch to Delta and SkyTeam would confuse its passengers, and may not win anti-trust immunity from US authorities because it would dominate the trans-Pacific market.
   A JAL spokesman said: ‘Nothing is decided on this issue and the reports are based on speculation.’
   In a statement, American Airlines said that ‘until JAL officially announces its future alliance plans, it’s inappropriate to comment’.
   ‘American Airlines and Oneworld continue to believe that a relationship with Oneworld is the best outcome for JAL, for Japan’s national interests and for consumers travelling between Japan and the United States,’ it said.
   In December, Japan and the United States reached a liberalisation deal to replace a 1952 accord that fixed the number of US-Japan flights.

Dubai said Sunday it had pumped $6.2 billion into Dubai World and that it is prepared to put even more money into the conglomerate whose debt woes caused global market jitters late last year.
   The Dubai Financial Support Fund, set up in February last year to aid indebted state-run corporations, ‘has put over $6.2 billion into Dubai World Group over the past 12 months,’ a government spokeswoman told the AFP.
   ‘The DFSF stands ready to put considerably more money into the company in line with the announcement it made’ in December, when the government forked out $4.1 billion to cover maturing bonds owed by Nakheel, the giant property arm of Dubai World.
   Dubai was able to rescue Nakheel from an imminent default thanks to a last-minute lifeline from neighbouring Abu Dhabi, which brought Abu Dhabi’s total financial aid to Dubai since the global financial crisis hit the emirate to $10 billion.
   The Abu Dhabi-backed central bank of the United Arab Emirates also paid $10 billion last February.
   Although Dubai World is owned by the government, the spokeswoman stressed that the funds were extended on a commercial basis.
   ‘This money was made available to the DFSF on commercially reasonable terms, and the DFSF has endeavoured to advance these funds to the company on a commercial basis,’ she said, without disclosing the rate of interest offered.
   ‘These funds would be used for, among other things, working capital and interest expenses for the company’s creditors,’ the spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity.
   Dubai World began late December negotiations with creditors to restructure some $22 billion in debt owed by its troubled subsidiaries. So far, no agreement has been reported.

India’s economy should grow 7.2 per cent in the fiscal year ending in March, an official forecast said on Monday, as the economy’s recovery from the global financial crisis picks up speed.
   The projection was contained in an advanced estimate prepared by the statistics office for use by the government in drafting its budget for the next financial year.
   The forecast growth is slower than the average nine per cent expansion India logged before the global economic downturn, but marks an acceleration from the 6.7 per cent posted in the previous financial year.
   Late last week the International Monetary Fund said India has been among the first to recover from the global downturn while New Delhi and Beijing were making a ‘significant contribution’ in the revival of the global economy.

Banglalink has recently organised the distributors’ conference 2010 in a city hotel. Its distributors from across the country participated in the daylong event which was also attended by the Banglalink sales team and the top management.
   Banglalink chief executive officer Ahmed Abou Doma stressed on strong partnership between the country’s 2nd largest mobile operator and its distributors, said a news release.
   He also outlined the vision for 2010 and beyond, highlighting the key achievements, future challenges and top line strategies.
   Also present were Asher Yaqub Khan, chief commercial officer, Shihab Ahmad, marketing director, Arif Mehmood Malik, director sales and other directors.
   The top performing distributors of 2009 were acknowledged and rewarded with special prizes. The session concluded with a raffle draw and cultural programmes by renowned solo singer Mila and the rock band LRB.

Mercantile Bank arranged a discussion meeting with its customers on Borrowers’ Rating under Basel-II at the board room of its head office in Dhaka on Sunday.
   Managing director and chief executive officer of the bank Dewan Mujibur Rahman presided over the meeting, said a news release.
   Deputy general manager of banking regulation and policy department of Bangladesh Bank KM Abdul Wadud and Credit Rating Information and Services Ltd president and chief executive officer Muzaffar Ahmed were present in the meeting as guests of honor.
   Additional managing director AKM Shahidul Haque, deputy managing director Md Abdul Jalil Chowdhury, deputy managing director and chief financial officer Monindra Kumar Nath and other senior executives of the bank were present.

IDLC Finance Limited, a leading multi product financial institution, inaugurated its Naraynganj branch at Sattar Tower, 50 SM Maleh Road in Narayanganj recently.
   The IDLC Narayanganj branch will offer a full range of SME, corporate and personal finance products including term loans, lease finance, home loans, car loans, personal loans and attractive deposit schemes, said a news release.
   IDLC Finance chief executive officer and managing director Selim RF Hussain inaugurated the branch.
   Deputy managing director Arif Khan, head of SME Zahid Ibne Hai, and head of personal finance division Shaikh Kamruzzaman were present during the opening ceremony.