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Grameenphone shares fell by 5.58 per cent on Sunday after the Supreme Court ordered the operator to pay Tk 20 billion to the telecoms regulators as part of its disputed audit demand.
The company’s shares ended at Tk 311.1 at Dhaka Stock Exchange, down by Tk 18.4 from Tk 329.5 of the last trading day on Thursday.
After the Appellate Division passed the order in the morning, Grameenphone opened trading at Tk 328.9.
The fall in the price of shares of Grameenphone, which holds 12 per cent of the market capital, took down the main indices as well, reports bdnews24.com.
In Dhaka, DSEX dropped 18.28 points to 4688.42 while in Chittagong Stock Exchange, CASPI shed 20 to 14252.24.
After reaching the peak, Tk 510, in February last year, Grameenphone shares started to drop and was Tk 410 in January this year.
The price fell further to Tk 324 on July 15 and then below Tk 300 to Tk 289.4 on Sept 4.
Its earnings per share dropped to Tk 5.38 in the July-September quarter from Tk 6.25 in the same quarter last year.
“GP share price has a huge effect on our stock market. The index falls when GP share price drops,” Shakil Rizvi, president of DSE Brokers Association, said.
“It will be better if there is a good solution to the Grameenphone problem. Foreign investors are watching the matter,” he added.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission or BTRC in April asked Grameenphone to pay Tk 125.8 billion dues found in audit.
The top court, however, has kept a freeze on the regulator’s demand notice.
Grameenphone moved the court after the BTRC restricted the company’s bandwidth capacity and halted issuing permissions for new ventures like network expansion and offering new packages as the company refused to make the payment calling the regulator’s claims “unfounded” and “faulty”.