Himadri becomes DSE's priciest stock

The share price of Himadri Limited — a company listed on the SME board of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) — continued to skyrocket, and the stock became the most expensive one on Sunday among the bourse's all listed scrips. 

The company's shares closed at Tk6,474 apiece on Sunday at the Dhaka bourse, where the multinational giant Reckitt Benckiser (Bangladesh) PLC was the second-most pricey stock which closed at Tk4,850. 

On 26 April this year, Himadri's shares traded at Tk35.3 each. In a span of just four and a half months, the stock soared 183 times. 

Earlier, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) had directed the DSE to carry out an investigation at Himadri to find out whether there have been any malpractices behind the share price jump. 

The BSEC sources said the DSE submitted the investigation report within the stipulated time. The report is now under the scanner of the commission's enforcement department. 

Himadri Limited, a subsidiary of Ejab Group, had earlier decided to increase its authorised capital from Tk2 crore to Tk50 crore to comply with the regulatory requirement.

The company has only 7.5 lakh shares in total, of which, sponsors and directors held 98.43%, and the government 1.48%.

Later, the BSEC asked the company's sponsor-directors to offload more shares. The directors then offloaded 32.71% shares from their holdings.

Incorporated in 1974, Himadri Limited mainly provides cold storage facilities for agro-based products such as potatoes in the north of Bangladesh.

Currently, it has six potato cold storages in Rangpur, Bogura, Joypurhat, Thakurgaon, Gaibandha, and Dinajpur.

In September 2021, Himadri Limited was shifted from the over-the-counter (OTC) market to the SME platform. On the OTC market, the company's shares were last traded on 8 March 2014.