Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Commercial banks have reported an 18 percent growth in profit from the share market in 2014 following a higher market exposure by them, official sources said.
According to an official figure, the country’s state-owned and private commercial banks have earned Tk1,112 crore as profit from the share market in 2014 compared with Tk 920.96 crore in 2013, indicating an 18 percent year-on-year rise in their profit .
“The country’s prevailing investment crunch helped piling up excess liquidity in the banking sector and the banks have invested their idle money in stock market helping them make a hefty profit,” a senior executive of a private commercial bank told The New Nation on Sunday.
He added: The banks remained cautious in investing in other productive sectors due to the country’s unstable political situation. It had forced them to invest in capital market to diversify their investment. Officials said, a total of 45 public and private commercial banks invested various securities in the capital market last year. Among them, five public banks— Bangladesh Development Bank Limited (BDBL), Sonali Bank, Janata, Agrani and Rupali —have altogether reported an amount of Tk 556 crore profit.
In the year 2014, BDBL made the highest profit of Tk 175 crore from investment and sale of securities in capital market followed by Sonali Bank Tk 154 crore, Janata Bank Tk 117 crore and Rupali Tk 105 crore. Besides, the scam-hit BASIC Bank also earned Tk 4.0 crore as profit from share market.
Among the private banks, Pubali reportedly earned a profit of Tk 48.26 crore followed by The City Bank Tk 41 crore, South-East Bank Tk 36 crore, Exim Bank Tk 38.59 crore, Al-Arafah Bank Tk 38 crore, National Bank Tk 35 crore, Premier Bank Tk 29 crore, and UCBL Tk 18.43 crore, AB Bank Tk 17 crore and Social Islami Bank Tk 14 crore.
According to an official figure, the country’s public and private banks had altogether invested an amount of Tk 35,000 crore in the capital market in last two years which have come down to Tk 23,800 crore as on June this year.
On September 16 last year, the central bank asked all commercial banks to reduce their capital market exposure to 25 percent of their equity by July 2016 to comply with the new Bank Company Act. “The banks that were maintaining higher exposure to the stock market have already started reducing their exposure resulting the fall in their investment in the capital market,” a senior BB official told The New Nation on Sunday.
