Euro falls after Moody’s downgrades Italy

The euro came under pressure in Asia on Wednesday after Moody's downgraded Italy's credit rating, fuelling worries over eurozone debt and the impact of a possible Greek default on the global economy.

The euro fell to $1.3308 in Tokyo trade from $1.3338 in New York late Tuesday. The single currency also sagged to 102.06 yen from 102.14 yen.

The dollar inched down to 76.69 yen from 76.82 yen.

'The market is jittery about political wrangling hampering aid to Greece after the eurozone finance ministers' meeting has shown no immediate action and need for more time,' said Teppei Ino, analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Two-day talks between European finance ministers wrapped up with no fresh news Tuesday, while Athens was denied the next eight-billion-euro ($10.7 billion) tranche of bailout money it needs to avoid defaulting on its debts.

Ratings agency Moody's on Tuesday downgraded Italy's government bond rating by three notches from Aa2 to A2 with a negative outlook, citing risks for the financing of long-term debt and slow economic growth.

The move poured cold water on sentiment after the euro gained and US stocks saw a last-minute rally overnight.

market Disclosures

Bd Thai Aluminium
The company has informed that the board of directors of the company has decided to hold an EGM on November 13 at 9:30am at Banani Community Centre at Kemal Ataturk Avenue in Dhaka to change the denomination of face value of shares from Tk 100 to Tk 10 each and to change market lot of the shares from 10 to 50 shares. Record date for EGM is October 18.

Trust Bank
Trading of the shares of the bank will be allowed only in the spot market and block/odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle from October 9 to 11. Trading of the shares of the bank will remain suspended on record date on October 12 for EGM.

BSRM Steels
Trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the spot market and block/odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle from October 9 to 11. Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended on record date on October 12 for EGM.

Samata Leather Complex
Trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the spot market and block/odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle from October 9 to 19. Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended on record date on October 20 for EGM.

Central Insurance
Trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the spot market and block/odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle from October 9 to 11. Trading of the shares of the company will remain suspended on record date on October 12 for EGM.

BRAC bonds
Normal trading of the Subordinated 25 per cent Convertible Bonds of BRAC Bank Ltd will resume on Sunday after record date.

Samorita Hospital
The company has informed that the board of directors of the company has decided to change the denomination of face value of shares of the company from Tk 100 to Tk 10 each as well as market lot from 50 to 100 shares. Accordingly, the clause No V and article No 5 of memorandum and articles of association of the company will be amended. Date of EGM is November 24 at 10:30am at Samarai Convention Centre at Panthapath in Dhaka. Record date for EGM is October 27.

Dutch-Bangla Bank
The bank has informed that the board of directors of the bank has decided to change the denomination of shares (face value) of the bank from Tk 100 to Tk 10 each and market lot of the shares from 50 to 500 shares as well as to amend the clause/articles of the memorandum and articles of association of the bank subject to approval of regulatory authorities and the shareholders. Date of EGM is November 13 at 10:00am at training wing of Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited at Dilkusha in Dhaka. Record date for EGM is October 17.
Source: DSE

Apple stumble seen opening door for rivals

Rival smartphone makers could exploit a rare letdown by Apple in the launch of its new iPhone 4S model, which failed to wow fans, and grab a bigger share of the most lucrative part of the phone market.

However, analysts also noted that Apple has decided to keep older iPhone models and slash their prices, potentially helping the company to expand sales in lower-end and developing markets, where Nokia and Samsung have dominated.

'Apple no longer has a leading edge, its cloud service is even behind (Google's mobile operating system) Android; it can only sell on brand loyalty now,' said Gartner analyst CK Lu in Taipei.

'Users may wait to buy the next iPhone; if they can't wait, they may shift to brands with more advanced specs.'

The iPhone — introduced in 2007 with the touchscreen template since adopted by rivals — has proved to be the gold standard in the booming smartphone market, and its surging sales have hit the ambitious plans of many competitors.

But shares in Samsung Electronics, HTC and LG Electronics, which all make phones using Google's Android operating system, ended higher after Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S at its Cupertino, California headquarters overnight.

The new iPhone 4S is identical in form to the previous model, disappointing fans who had hoped for a thinner, bigger-screened design of a product that had not been updated for more than a year.

While the device's high-tech wizardry such as voice commands — for sending messages, searching for stock prices and other applications — caught the attention of many analysts, it might not be enough to make it a must-have for consumers.

Unions to join anti-Wall St protest

US activists protesting corporate greed prepared for a downtown Manhattan march Wednesday that will include support from unionised teachers and transportation workers.

The 'Occupy Wall Street' web site said the demonstration, scheduled for 4:30pm (2030 GMT), will begin at New York City Hall and end at Liberty Plaza, in southern Manhattan.

The march is supported members of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents most of the city's public school teachers; the Workers United and Transport Workers, which represents many of the city's bus drivers; and Professional Staff Congress-CUNY (PSC-CUNY), which represents more than 20,000 professors and staff at the City University of New York.

The unions are all on record expressing solidarity with the protesters.

'Union members and community members impacted by the economic crisis have been demanding that Wall Street and New York's wealthiest pay their fair share of taxes,' read the main Occupy Wall Street web site.

'Let's march down to Wall Street to welcome the protesters and show the face of New Yorkers hardest hit by corporate greed.'

Protesters have installed a makeshift camp in a small park near Wall Street in New York since September 17.

Activists responding to a call from the Canadian anti-consumer group converged on New York's Financial District, but were unable to invade Wall Street as hoped and came in far smaller numbers than predicted.

But their numbers have since grown, as has their media presence. Similar demonstrations have cropped up in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere.

The new protest comes four days after more than 700 protesters were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge when they defied police and stalled traffic. The Saturday demo was their biggest demonstration yet against government-backed banking bailouts and corporate influence in US politics.

Police said most of those arrested were issued criminal court summons and citations for disorderly conduct before being released later in the day.

Dhaka stocks end flat amid lacklustre trading

Dhaka stocks ended flat in volatile trading on Wednesday posting a low turnover as the lack of confidence among investors and the liquidity crisis continued to haunt the market.

The benchmark general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, or DGEN, crawled up by 0.017 per cent, or 0.97 points, to close the day at 5,727.80 points.

The day's turnover of the bourse, however, increased to Tk 296.01 crore from that of Tk 285.21 crore on the previous day.

Market operators said as some large investors on the day went into buying it pushed the share prices up in the opening hours. But, the early rise faded fast as a section of retail investors went into panic sell-offs seeing the market had continued to fall in the previous three trading sessions.

Announcement by the market regulators and stakeholders of taking various market stabilising measures perhaps made the investors even more confused and panicky, seeing none of those had been implemented yet, they said. 

'Investors are panicked as they see all the regulatory moves failing to stabilise the market and many of them want to leave the market for good,' said a stockbroker.

'So, whenever market goes up they go for selling from the fear that the gaining streak may not last long,' he said.

He also said that on Wednesday many investors refrained from trading and took a wait-and-see policy as they could not sell out their shareholdings it would mean huge losses. 

'But, even if some of them wanted to sell shares and leave the market, a huge negative balance in portfolios restricted them from doing that. Otherwise, the selling pressure today would have been greater as investors did not have the minimum confidence in the market,' he said.

The market was volatile throughout today's trading session and closed flat at the end, said BRAC EPL in its daily market commentary.

A section of retail investors, who had lead the street demonstrations in the last few weeks, on Wednesday met the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman to seek the capital market watchdog's help in bailing out their fellow investors of the cases lodged against them during the protest. They said 31 investors were charged for vandalism and creating nuisance in public during the demonstration on September 19.

SEC chairman M Khairul Hossain assured the investors he would look into the matter.

Grameenphone, the highest weighted issue on the DSE, lost value of Tk 3.3 or 2.10 per cent on Wednesday as the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission on Tuesday said the government would take legal action against GP to realise outstanding taxes and revenue worth Tk 3,034 crore.

Among the major sectors, bank declined by 0.26 per cent, while non-bank financial institutions advanced by 0.38 per cent, and fuel and power 0.09 per cent.

Lafarge Surma Cement was the highest traded scrip of the day with a transaction volume of Tk 20.18 crore. The rest of the turnover leaders on the top-10 list were Grameenphone, Eastern Housing, Beximco Synthetics, Beximco, National Bank Ltd, BD Thai Aluminium, Summit Power, Beximco Pharma, and City Bank.

Of the 257 issues traded on the day, 152 advanced, 90 declined, and 16 remained unchanged.

8 ICB mutual funds get one more year before redemption

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday extended the deadline for the redemption of eight mutual funds

of the Investment

Corporation of Bangladesh by one year to December

31, 2012.

'The commission has decided to extend the deadline considering the request made by the ICB and the current market condition,' SEC executive director Saifur Rahman told reporters.

The eight mutual funds are 1st ICB MF, 2nd ICB MF, 3rd ICB MF, 4th ICB MF, 5th ICB MF, 6th ICB MF, 7th ICB MF, and 8th ICB MF.

The total size of the eight mutual funds is Tk 17.75 crore.

Before Wednesday's consent, the SEC rejected the same request made by the ICB for four times.

The SEC on Wednesday also approved the prospectus of Tk 50 crore VIPBNLI First Mutual Fund. The sponsor of the fund is National Life Insurance Company that will invest Tk 10 crore to the fund. Another Tk 10 crore will be added to the fund raised through pre-IPO placement.

The total number of units of the fund is five crore, each having a face value of Tk 10 and the fund will raise the remaining Tk 30 crore from the market through floating an  initial public offering.

The VIPB Asset Management Company is the fund manager and the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh is its trusty and custodian.

Inadequate sanitation costs country 6.3 per cent of GDP: report

Inadequate sanitation causes Bangladesh an economic loss of about $4.22 billion (Tk 30,000 crore) a year, according to a new report published by the Water and Sanitation Programme, a multi-donor partnership led by the World Bank.

The annual loss is equivalent to 6.3 per cent of the country's gross domestic product in 2007, said 'The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Sanitation in Bangladesh' report based on evidence of the adverse economic impacts of inadequate sanitation that included costs associated with deaths and diseases, accessing and treating water, and loss of education, productivity, and time.

The findings of the report are based on 2007 figures, although a similar magnitude of losses is likely in later years, said a WB press release on Wednesday.

The report also shows that the losses incurred due to premature mortality and other health-related impacts of poor sanitation totals around $3.56 billion (Tk 25,000 crore) or about 84.3 per cent of the total economic loss due to inadequate sanitation.

This is followed by the loss of productive time to access sanitation facilities or sites for defecation that stands at $454 million (Tk 3,000 crore) or 10.8 per cent and the loss incurred from the drinking water-related impacts that accounts for $207 million (Tk 1,500 crore) or 4.9 per cent of the total economic adverse impacts.

Ninety-five per cent of the premature mortality-related economic losses are due to deaths and diseases among children under five. Diarrhoea among these children accounts for $1.46 billion (Tk 10,000 crore) or 40.9 per cent of all health-related adverse economic impacts, the press release said.

In Bangladesh, diarrhoea is the largest contributor to health-related negative economic impacts resulting from poor sanitation, amounting to two-thirds of the total health-related adverse impacts. This is followed by acute lower respiratory tracts infections, which account for about 15 per cent of all health-related adverse impacts.

Poor households, which are the biggest victims of inadequate sanitation, experience about 71 per cent of the total economic adverse impacts of inadequate sanitation, the release added.

The amount of the losses caused by poor sanitation exceed Bangladesh's national development budget for 2007-2008 by 33 per cent.

'The total amount of these losses is five times higher than the national health budget, and three times higher than the national education budget,' said World Bank Bangladesh country director Ellen Goldstein.

'Similar studies carried out in East Asia and India indicated annual per capita losses in the range of $9.3 in Vietnam, $16.8 in the Philippines, $28.6 in Indonesia, $32.4 in Cambodia, and $48 in India,' said Water and Sanitation Programme South Asia regional team leader Christopher Juan Costain.

'Bangladesh lost $29.6 per capita, which demonstrates the urgency of improving sanitation in the country,' he added.

BTRC-GP to sit next week to resolve dispute

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regularity Commission has asked the Grameenphone to sit next week with the regulator to resolve the dispute on unpaid tax and revenue.

The regulatory authority in a letter on Wednesday advised the mobile phone operator to sit on Monday next for clarifying their position on the unpaid amount of Tk 3,034 crore. The regularity body issued the letter in response to the GP's Tuesday's letter to BTRC, requesting a date for bi-lateral discussion.

A BTRC official said they had suggested GP sent a team of 3-5 members to have discussion about their queries regarding the audit and unpaid payment.

GP sources confirmed receiving the letter from BTRC, but could not make any comments on the possible meeting.

BTRC chairman major general Zia Ahmed (retd) told the news agency on Wednesday that he expected that the company would sit for discussion instead of giving press statement.

Earlier on October 4, the telecom regulator asked GP to pay their unpaid tax and revenue of Tk 3,034 crore by October 24 or face legal action. Of the amount, Tk 2146.54 crore is owed to the BTRC and rest Tk 887.57 crore to the National Board of Revenue.

MA Rouf’s death anniv today

The 11th anniversary of death of former chairman of the Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad, MA Rouf, also a secretary to the government, is going to be observed today.

The family of MA Rouf, also the former chief engineer of Public Works Department, at a press release requested his relatives, friends and well wishers to pray for him.

WB approves $172 million for installing 630,000 solar home systems

The World Bank on Tuesday approved US$ 172 million to support installation of an additional 630,000 solar home systems and other renewable energy mini-grid schemes in the country's rural areas.

The credit from the International Development Association, the World Bank's concessionary arm, has 40 years to mature with a 10-year grace period and carries a service charge of 0.75 percent, said a WB press release issued on Wednesday.

The US$ 172 million credit is an additional financing to the ongoing Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development Project following success in installing solar home systems in rural areas where grid electricity is not economically feasible or hard to reach.

The solar home system component of the RERED project is implemented by government-owned financial institution, the Infrastructure Development Company Limited and its partner organizations, mostly non-government organizations.

The World Bank had earlier provided additional financing of $130 million in end 2009. Since December 2009, more than 300,000 solar home systems have been installed.

More than a million homes and shops in remote areas have installed solar systems with support from the World Bank and other development partners. Such systems are most suitable for remote and dispersed communities which the national power grid connection cannot reach, the press release said quoting WB country director Ellen Goldstein.

The solar home systems have already improved the quality of life of millions of people in Bangladesh and provided opportunities for new village enterprises, the WB executive said.