Small-cap companies at the Dhaka Stock Exchange registered substantial gains in the recent sessions what analysts considered to be abnormal in absence of any corporate disclosures.
Shares of three such companies – Standard Ceramic, Renwick Jajneswar and Eastern Cables – have gained substantially in last week as they recorded 38.8%, 38.3% and 31.8% increase respectively to close at Tk52.6, Tk288.5 and Tk165.7 each.
Apart from Eastern Cables, two other companies showed fall in profits in the last quarter as compared to same period a year earlier. However, the disclosures came almost a couple of months ago.
The “A” category scrip, Renwick Jajneswar, saw a rise in its price of 76% in the last 18 trading sessions while the “Z” category stock Eastern Cables surged 59% in last 19 trading sessions.
Two of the companies belong to the engineering segment at the bourse while one belonging to ceramics sector.
“Price manipulation of such sort is not a new phenomenon at our bourses and it is sad to witness it over and over again,” said Md Moniruzzaman, managing director of IDLC Investments Ltd.
He said investors would need to be made aware about the dynamics of our capital markets.
The three companies were traded of a value of Tk12 crore last week at DSE.
Stocks of Renwick Jajneswar were traded valued Tk7.2 crore last week, which is 12% of its market value of Tk57.7 crore. The company has also an accumulated loss of Tk7.7 crore as of last year-end.
Analysts suggested that looking at the major buyers and sellers of the stock could help the concerned authorities take steps towards putting a stop to such price manipulations.
“It is a sheer manipulation and the regulator is not acting on it,” said a capital market analyst, asking his name not to be mentioned.
Recently, Renwick Jajneswar and Eastern Cables have informed that they have no undisclosed price sensitive information of their company for recent unusual price hike, in response to DSE and CSE queries.