Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The BBN has prepared the morning business round up compiling reports, published by different newspapers and news portals in Bangladesh.
More Indian power: India has assured of providing 100 more megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh from Tripura's Paltana power plant to meet the growing demand. At present the neighbour country supplies 500 MW of electricity to the national grid through the South-western region. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made the pledge to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina during a 25-minute meeting on the sidelines of Bimstec summit in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on Tuesday.
Dhaka to sort out transit issues with Delhi: Dhaka has decided to sort out the obstacles hindering connectivity issues with India as Delhi is learnt to have mounted fresh pressure to get controversial transit to its north-eastern provinces through Bangladesh, said officials. A decision in this regards was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting hosted by finance ministry though industry Amir Hossain Amu and shipping minister Shajahan Khan said India has to be more liberal on trade related issues with Bangladesh. Finance minister AMA Muhith chaired the meeting.
Gold seizure goes up 21 times in 2013: Sudden surge in gold smuggling in Bangladesh has raised strong suspicion that the precious metal is distained for the neighbouring Indian market, customs officials and insiders said. Indian government raised import duties thrice in 2013 to 10 per cent on gold bullion - up from 2 per cent in January. Experts and law enforcers suspect a section of smugglers are using Bangladesh as transit to send smuggled gold into the neighbouring country taking advantage of the farmer's geographical location.
BB purchases $3.35 billion from banks: The central bank of Bangladesh continues to purchase the US dollar from the commercial banks directly aiming to keep the inter-bank foreign exchange market stable, officials said Tuesday. “We’ve strengthened our intervention in the foreign exchange (forex) market recently to protect the interests of exporters and migrant workers by keeping the exchange rate of the local currency against the greenback stable,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
Govt borrowing target may rise by BDT 20 bilion:Borrowing target from national savings certificates for the current financial year may be revised by up to BDT 20 billion on the original estimate of BDT 49.71 billion, with investors rushing to buy high-yielding savings instruments. Finance ministry officials who monitor government borrowing trend throughout the year for financing the budget deficit, said that net borrowing from the savings tools in July–January had grown five times year-on-year. Low bank interest and the latest regulation revision favouring investment in savings tools are two major factors that are pushing savings instrument sales, finance officials said.
Regulator to evaluate risks in stock market: The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission is set to conduct an assessment in the next two years to identify and address the underlying threats in the capital market. The assessment will look into market volatility and risk factors of intermediary players such as bourses, stockbrokers, stock dealers, merchant banks and asset management companies. After defining and classifying the vulnerabilities, the stockmarket regulator will develop a strategy to deal with the problems. Arif Khan, a commissioner of the BSEC, said the stockmarket regulator has already started work on the assessment with Asian Development Bank.
Bangladesh’s stocks return to green: Stocks returned to the green on Tuesday after four consecutive session of losing streak with turnover dipped below BDT 5.0 billion-mark once again as investors remained cautious. The market opened with a positive note and the upward trend continued till the market closure, eventually, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) --- DSEX --- ended at 4,703.87 points, gaining 16.68 points or 0.35 per cent from previous session. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) went up by 4.51 points or 0.45 per cent to close at 1,006.02 points. However, the DS30, comprising blue chips lost 7.44 points or 0.43 per cent to close at 1,694.81 points.
End/SI/AD-05Mar14-9:20 am (BST)