BSEC forms body to probe nine companies’ unusual price hike

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday formed an inquiry committee to investigate the recent unusual price hike in shares of nine listed companies.

The companies to be investigated are: Emerald Oil Industries, Anwar Galvanizing, GBB Power, Bangladesh National Insurance, National Feed, Paper Processing and Packaging, Dacca Dyeing, Fu-Wang Ceramic and Beacon Pharmaceuticals.

BSEC Director Sheikh Mahbubur Rahman will lead the four-member committee, consisting of Assistant Director Ziaur Rahman, DGM of DSE Mohammad Shafikul Islam Bhuiya and CDBL officer Moinul Haque are as members.

The committee has been given 60 days to submit the probe report.

The probe body would investigate the reasons behind the suspicious share transaction of these companies and look into possible insider trading, price manipulation and securities violations, if any, BSEC officials said.

Seeking anonymity, a BSEC official told The Business Post, “The share prices of these companies are increasing abnormally in recent days. It is easy for syndicate to take advantage of low paid-up companies and make large sums of money by manipulating prices, due to the small number of shares in the market.”

Recently, BSEC has been taking stern action against the manipulators to stop the unusual hike in share prices of a number of low paid-up companies those are not in full-fledged production.

During the last two months, the share price of Emerald Oil Industries increased from Tk 18 to Tk 34. In the past four years, the company has not announced dividend for shareholders and failed to hold an annual general meeting. Its shares have been trading under ‘Z’ category.

The share price of Anwar Galvanizing Limited increased to Tk 310 from Tk 244. Followed by the share price of GBB Power from Tk 31 to Tk 35 in the last one month.

During the same period, National Feed’s share price rose to Tk 33.10 from Tk 23. The share price of Paper Processing and Packaging increased from Tk 95 to Tk 155.

The share price of Dacca Dyeing & Manufacturing Co. Ltd. rose to Tk 24.10 from Tk 20 in the last month while the share price of Fu-Wang Ceramic and Becon Pharma increased from Tk 18.10 to Tk 24.80 and from Tk 159 to Tk 209 respectively.