The capital market is in freefall but even so, the prices of several overvalued companies continue to climb.
The firms on top of Dhaka Stock Exchange's gained issues include Tallu Spinning, MB Pharma, Desh Garments, BD Autocars and Pharma Aids.
All these companies have a PE ratio of 75 to 245. Shares are considered overvalued when their PE ratios exceed 40, and loan facility for their purchase is withdrawn.
Former SEC chairman A B Mirza Azizul Islam told bdnews24.com that expected PE ratio for any share should be 15.
"Up to 20 is acceptable. But anything more than that is risky and overvalued," he said.
DSE general index has plummeted 5.25 percent in the last week, with 242 issues falling. But the five companies on top of the list have advanced nine to 15.23 percent.
Tallu Spinning shares rose 15.23 percent in a week. Shares face valued at Tk 100 have been traded last at Tk 700 each. The 'A' category company now has a PE ratio of 245.47.
Desh Garments shares rose 10.47 percent. Shares face valued at Tk 100 were traded last at Tk 719 each. The 'B' category garments sector company now has a PE ratio of 222.86.
Shares of BD Autocars, a 'B' category engineering sector firm, rose 10.7 percent last week. Shares face valued at Tk 100 have been traded last at Tk 622.50 each. The company now has a PE ratio of 155.92.
Pharma Aids shares rose nine percent. Shares face valued at Tk 100 were traded last at Tk Tk 3068 each. The 'A' category pharmaceutical and chemical company now has a PE ratio of 75.41.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon the world once again to reach a binding agreement on climate change.
"Climate change is upon us and we cannot afford to waste time," Hasina told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday in New York.
"In COP 17 in Durban this year, we must have a binding agreement on cuts of greenhouse gas emissions, burden sharing, relocation of climate migrants, free transfer of technologies, and real contribution to the internationally agreed Climate Fund," she said.
The 17th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 17) will be held in Durban in South Africa.
"Bangladesh is under extra strain from climate change. A meter rise of the sea due to global warming would inundate a fifth of our landmass displacing over 30 million people," Hasina said, and pointed out that this would be the largest humanitarian crisis in history.
She then outlined the measures Bangladesh had undertaken to mitigate climate change impacts.
"We have prepared a 134-point adaptation and mitigation plan that includes river dredging, afforesting 20 percent of land and increasing food production with crop varieties attuned to climate change.
"We have also established a Climate Change Trust Fund with $ 300 million of our own funds, and a Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund with $ 110 million from the donors," she added.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the United Nations to make Bangla one of its official languages.
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York on Saturday, Hasina said, "Bangla is spoken by over 300 million people worldwide."
"I earnestly appeal to you to back my proposal to declare Bangla as one of the official languages of the United Nations," she said. This is the third consecutive year she has made the call at UN.
Parliament passed a resolution endorsing the call in 2009, following which the Indian state of West Bengal also passed a similar resolution in its parliament.
Bangla is the sixth largest language in the world in terms of native speakers. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) observes Feb 21 as the International Mother Language Day, recognising the sacrifice of lives made by Bangladeshis for the right to use their language on Feb 21, 1952.
BNP and its allies are planning to make a large gathering on Tuesday's rally at Naya Paltan where chairperson Khaleda Zia will declare new agitation plans.
Ahead of the rally, Khaleda Zia held separate meetings with senior leaders, former members of parliament and eight like-minded parties at her Gulshan office on Saturday.
She sat first with former MPs and some other leaders of Dhaka and adjacent areas at the meetings that started at 9pm
Later at 9:45pm, she held another meeting with eight like-minded parties including Jatiya Ganatantrik Party, National People's Party, Muslim League, Bangladesh NAP, Labour Party, Islamic Party, National Democratic Party and NAP (Bhasani).
On Tuesday afternoon, Khaleda is expected to deliver new plans for anti-government movement from a rally in front of BNP headquarters.
Senior BNP leaders, Juba Dal leaders, former and present student leaders, lawyers, journalists, activists and like-minded parties' leaders and activists were also present at her office.
The country has celebrated Meena Day under the theme of 'Love and affection can win all that punishment can never do'.
Meena is a fictional character who stars in the South Asian children's television show Meena. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNISEF) conceived Meena in the early 1990s with the help and guidance of Hanna-Barbara Cartoons and Ram Mohan (father of Indian animation).
The project came out of a need to confront the extreme discrimination against girls in the South Asia region.
The goal of the Meena initiative is to create a girl character that would represent little girls in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal, dealing with serious issues in the region such as education, early marriage, unequal food and work load, while entertaining at the same time, through her stories in comic books, animated films, and radio series (affiliated with the BBC).
The secondary characters of her stories include her brother Raju, and her pet parrot Mithu. All of her stories advocate change in social and cultural practices.
Primary and mass education minister Afsarul Amin at a function in the city marking the Meena Day on Saturday said Meena cartoon has long been playing a vital role in creating social awareness on different issues especially on the necessity of female education.
"I've noticed that apart from the children, the elders also like the Meena character. The character not only raises awareness among the children but also the elders," he added.
Referring to the limitation of the academic education, the minister said: "In reality, it's difficult to bring positive changes to society through formal or academic education. Also, it's very difficult to bring the vast population of a country like Bangladesh under formal education due to manpower shortage and other problems."
Afsarul also referred to the pledge of the government to reach education "to the doorsteps of people". He also admired the activities of the non-government organisations (NGO).
He, however, said there was a lack of sincerity among the officials of different government bodies.
The primary and mass education directorate organised the function at the auditorium of Institute of Diploma Engineers.
A Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) magistrate has sentenced three university students to jail for the sexual harassment of a girl.
RAB executive magistrate Anwar Pasha sentenced them to two years' imprisonment on Saturday, RAB-1 assistant director Mohammad Ahsan Kabir said in a press conference at the RAB headquarters.
"Following a complaint from the victim and her brother, RAB raided a house on road no 15 at Uttara sector 11 and arrested Parvez Sarkar, 20, Mohammad Mahbub Zaman, 21, and Uday Sharma, 20."
"A video of the complainant was recovered from them," he added.
He said that the criminals had forced the girl to undress and filmed her. Then they had asked for Tk 50,000, threatening to release the video online.
The RAB executive magistrate conducted a mobile court on the spot after the arrest and sentenced them.
The RAB officer said two culprits were students of South East University and another was from American International University of Bangladesh (AIUB).
After the verdict, they were sent to the jail.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved appointment of six more directors to Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE).
CSE president Fakhr Uddin Ali Ahmad on Saturday told bdnews24.com that the list of the six nominees was sent to SEC for approval. "SEC approved their appointment on Thursday."
The directors have been nominated for three years, he said.
The new directors the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) president A K Azad, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh president Parvin Mahmud, former caretaker government advisor C M Shafi Sami, Chittagong University teacher Prof Selim Uddin, Chittagong Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry's former president Abdus Salam and Daily Purbakon editor Taslim Uddin Chowdhury.
The port city's bourse has altogether 25 directors—Twelve elected and as many nominated while other one becomes the chief executive officer by virtue of his position.
Writer Humayun Ahmed's first cycle of chemotherapy ended around 10:30pm Bangladesh standard time on Saturday.
The cycle had begun around 12:30am Friday BdST"Each session takes around 48 hours," said Humayun's publisher Mazharul Islam.
As an early side-effect of chemotherapy, the chief executive of Anyaprokash said the writer had a slight loss of appetite. "But he has been taking his meals regularly."
Anyaprokash CEO Mazharul Islam flew to New York on Sep 13 along with Humayun Ahmed's family.
The famed author was diagnosed with colon cancer during a regular check-up at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital earlier this month.
Humayun is undergoing treatment at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre at Manhattan where a device been implanted into the body below the right collar bone. But the needle and the cannula has been removed.
"This is a modern method of administering chemo, and doctors say the side effects are much less," said Mazhar, who is attending Humayun.
Mazharul explained to bdnews24.com that the writer was administered chemotherapy with two drugs and needs to be physically present at the hospital for three hours. "The rest of it is administered through a cannula. We will have that removed today around noon (10:30pm BdST).
He said Humayun will have to go through six such fortnightly cycles of chemo. "The next one will begin 11 days later, which makes it once every fourteen days more or less."
While the writer may go through some minor tests after completing his first cycle, there won't be any major tests until another cycle to see how he is doing.
However, after completion of four cycles, the doctors will conduct another round of thorough tests to revaluate Humayun's condition. "That will essentially determine the next course of action."
Depending on the response, the doctors may choose to continue with the chemotherapy or go for surgery. "However, nothing can be said as yet. They will check to see if his colon tumour has shrunk and whether the liver spots are going away."
When asked whether the cancer had spread to other organs, Mazhar said, "Well there are spots in the liver but doctors have not yet ascertained if they are cancerous."
As regards the stage of Humayun's cancer, the publisher said doctors were not quite forthcoming. "But it is not a primary stage either."
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has presented a peace-centric development model before the world.
Addressing the 66th UN General Assembly on Saturday, she outlined her "People's empowerment and a peace-centric development model", which she said was inspired by her own life-time experiences.
"Throughout my half a century in politics, I have always been a crusader of peace. I believe that peace is achievable with the removal of injustice," she said.
These injustices include repression and absence of rule of law, inequality and economic disparity, deprivation and poverty, suppression of self determination, denial of secularism and multi-ethnicity, negligence of equal rights for women and the marginalised, as well as the lack of transparency and accountability of governments, she said.
These injustices have led to the loss of over 5 million lives from 1964 to 2011, she said.
"I believe these deaths could be avoided by strengthening the UN's mediation instruments, and by placing people at the centre of peace and development," Hasina said.
She said that UN's successes have reinforced the belief that it is still the most legitimate, universally accepted international body in the 21st century, with the ability to harness global collective will for the peaceful settlement of disputes through mediation.
Palestine has submitted its plea for membership as a state in this session of the assembly. In his speech to the assembly, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called upon Israel to mutual peace.
Hasina cited the words "Friendship towards all, malice towards none" and "peaceful settlement of disputes", which were spoken by her father, the then prime minister of Bangladesh and the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the same podium 37 years ago, and said peace was the basis for development.
The prime minister pointed out the six mutually reinforcing peace multipliers in the model, which were, eradication of poverty and hunger, reduction of inequality, mitigation of deprivation, inclusion of excluded people, acceleration of human development and elimination of terrorism.
"Prosperity is achievable by individual nations by sincere implementation of what is right, or sometimes under the guidance of the United Nations," Hasina said.