The morning after the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) issued a sanction on the sale of Grameenphone SIM cards, the two main rivals of the country's telecommunications sector — Grameenphone and Robi — started seeing negative and positive growth in the stock market.
Stock market analysts think that the whole thing is a guessing game as no one has any clear data. A few of them also believe that this downtrend could continue until a satisfactory response is given by the Grameenphone authority.
Regarding the ongoing situation, Shakil Rizvi, director of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and also former DSE president told Dhaka Tribune that: “It is difficult to comment on this until full information on SIM sales is available. However, the way the sale of shares ended on Thursday, the same fear may come again among the shareholders on Sunday.”
Sayedur Rahman, managing director of EBL Securities told Dhaka Tribune: “The whole thing is psychological because none of us has any kind of data here. We cannot say how many SIMs Grameenphone has sold so far, or whether their business will decrease at all even if they don't sell new SIM cards.”
However, Grameenphone has not said anything regarding the price fall in the stock market so far.
Dhaka Tribune tried to reach the Head of External Communications of Grameenphone Mohammad Hasan to learn about GP's explanation regarding the matter. But we didn’t get any formal explanation from them till filing this report.
Why are Grameenphone's stocks tumbling
Meanwhile, stock market analysis on the last day of the last week showed that the company's share price fell by Tk6 or 2% on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
That means the company's share price fell as much as what the circuit breaker allows on Thursday.
The last trading price of the company’s shares was Tk294.1. On this day, the company traded 1,73,262 shares within 1,032 transactions, which was valued at Tk5.09 crore in the market.
Asked about the reason for this, market analysts said that if the sales of SIM cards stop, it will reduce the company's profit. Due to this, conscious and dividend-receiving investors are selling the shares of the company.
With so many shares being sold, the selling pressure on the company has increased in the market. The price might go down further if the lower limit of circuit breakers didn’t stop the trading of the share.
Robi is rising, but experts consider it risky
Meanwhile, Robi Axiata Limited, another listed company in the share market of the telecommunications sector, has suddenly started seeing a good rise in their share value in contrast to Grameenphone’s tumbling value.
The company was in the 10th position on the list of share price increases on Thursday.
Robi Axiata Limited's share price rose by Tk1.50 or 5.24%. The last trading price of the stock was Tk30.10.
On this day, the company traded 26,93,738 shares within 2,713 transactions.
Asked about the impact of other companies on the stock market, Sayedur Rahman said: “I don't think it will have any impact on the share prices of other companies overnight.”
“Because we don't have accurate data about so many businesses,” he added.
Meanwhile, other market analysts also think that investing in Robi may also be risky. According to them, 90% of the shares held by Robi's directors will be free next year. This can increase the supply of the company's shares in the market. At that time, the high price of stocks could put pressure on investors.
Due to this, too much investment in Robi is also considered risky by market analysts.
BTRC sanction on Grameenphone’s SIM sale
Earlier on Wednesday, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission issued an order, barring the company from selling new connections, citing the “poor quality” of the mobile carrier's services.
“The quality of Grameenphone’s service isn’t improving despite it being the top mobile phone operator with a large customer base. They have failed to develop sufficient infrastructure to provide services to so many customers despite repeated reminders,” said Golam Razzaque, director of the BTRC's Engineering and Operations Division.
“We are receiving complaints about them [Grameenphone] regularly. Dropped calls are frequent [on Grameenphone’s network].”
In response to the sanction, Grameenphone said it has been "adhering to and staying well ahead of the regulator's QoS benchmark and ITU's international benchmark."
"In addition, GP has also been closely collaborating with the BTRC to constantly improve the network quality and service by acquiring the highest allowable spectrum in the recent auction and taking a series of network modernization steps."
The telecom operator stressed the need for constructive dialogue with the regulator to resolve the issues in the best interest of customers.
On Sunday, Grameenphone increased its minimum mobile recharge limit from Tk10 to Tk20. This is the first time that a Bangladeshi telecom operator company has set a minimum limit for mobile recharge.
However, customers will still be able to buy the Tk16 and Tk14 minute packs, Grameenphone said.
