Copenhagen's historic old stock exchange building is in flames. Its iconic spire has collapsed onto the roof. A fire tore through Copenhagen's 17th-century old Stock Exchange, one of Danish capital's most iconic buildings, on Tuesday. The blaze engulfed its iconic 54-meter spire that collapsed onto the roof, but no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is unknown.  According to city police, several streets and the area around the building have been cordoned off. Police asked people to avoid driving in the inner part of the city. Footage showed people rescuing large paintings from the burning building. Thick smoke and towering flames billowed from the structure. Danish Culture Minister Jakon Engel-Schmidt said it was "touching" to see how passers-by helped emergency services "to save art treasures and iconic images from the burning building." What do we know about the building? The historic building, whose spire was shaped as the tails of four dragons intertwined, was completed in 1625 and is one of the oldest in Copenhagen.  The Dutch Renaissance-style building no longer houses the Danish Stock Exchange, but serves as the headquarters of the Danish Chamber of Commerce. "We are witnessing a terrible spectacle," the Danish Chamber of Commerce said in a statement. The building had been under renovation when the fire broke out. It is covered in scaffolding. The aim of the restoration is to correct the previous work carried out in the 19th century and to restore the facade of the building to its original appearance.

China's stock market has seen net selling for a record six straight months, Bloomberg data shows. Foreign investors have fled amid economic problems and a tepid policy response from Beijing. In January, global funds sold $2 billion worth of Chinese equities. January marked the sixth consecutive month foreign investors were sellers of Chinese equities, according to a Bloomberg report. Last month, global funds sold 14.5 billion yuan worth of stocks — about $2 billion — and Beijing has yet to offer any policy solution to reverse the outflows. Chinese equities have shed roughly $6 trillion in market value since peaking in 2021.  The post-pandemic economic rebound never fully materialized for China, and instead, it's had to contend with severe real estate trouble, deflation, and fresh demographic challenges including an aging population and historic youth unemployment.  "You have an uber-bearish narrative around China that is proving very difficult to dislodge," Nicholas Spiro, a partner at Lauressa Advisory, told Business Insider in a recent interview. "China is emphatically out of favor with global investors." On January 22, Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities were weighing a rescue package for stocks worth as much as $278 billion, pulled primarily from offshore accounts of state-run firms.  Yet experts told Business Insider that even sizable initiatives may not bring bears clamoring back to China. The bleak outlook stems from China's real estate market, which accounts for the majority of household wealth in the country. With property values depreciating, people's willingness to spend has also deteriorated, as has sentiment across the economy and markets. Deep-seated structural issues in real estate, experts say, make it difficult to envision what has to happen for investors to regain confidence.    Source: Business Insider  

Software engineer Jacky Jia has been paying more attention than usual to his stocks portfolio since China launched a torrent of measures aimed at boosting the beleaguered market in recent weeks. South China Monitoring Post Reported. Regulators have slashed the stamp duty on transactions, restricted divestments by major shareholders and taken tighter control of approving new share offerings in a string of actions that have taken the immediate sting out of the sell-offs that have roiled the onshore market. Having banked a reasonable return on the back of this, 45-year-old Jia is toying with the idea of investing a fixed amount of his salary in stocks every month going forward. But something is holding him back. Like many of the 220 million retail investors at home, he is not fully convinced the government’s efforts go far enough to set equities on a path to long-term recovery. “I’m about 60 per cent confident in the market,” said Jia, who works for a Japanese software company in Shanghai, in a recent interview. Despite the positive vibes on the policy front, “there’s no significant improvement in fundamentals,” he said. “The key issue is the lack of money and confidence. Of course, confidence matters more.” The task of restoring that confidence, among both retail and institutional investors, rests with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the watchdog that oversees the nation’s US$10 trillion stock market. President Xi Jinping’s all-powerful Politburo made its move in a meeting in July, setting the tone for second-half economic policy. Sentiment has been shaky for some months, as expectations of a strong post-Covid economic recovery failed to materialise and top policymakers refrained from launching a policy “bazooka” to kick-start growth. The term “bazooka” is often used to refer to a large-scale stimulus package, similar to the one Beijing launched during the 2008 global financial crisis. The government has adopted a more piecemeal approach to economic stimulus. In the latest move, on Thursday, China’s central bank announced a fresh cut to the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves. Source: South China Monitoring Post

Chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Shibly Rubayat-ul-Islam said, the company directors who have less than 2 per cent shares in the stock market, have to leave their posts. We are disturbed about the role of independent directors. Decision will be taken in this regard very soon. In this way some directors may be removed. He said these at a webinar as the chief guest on the current stock market and what to be done in future jointly organized by Bangladesh Merchants Bankers Association (BMBA) and Capital Market Journalist Forum (CMJF). Shibly Rubayat-ul-Islam said, variation should be attained in the capital market. The market has to be extended. Daily one thousand crore taka transactions is not a big deal. Everybody has to work for taking the transactions up to 3 to 5 thousand crore taka. He said, we have to try in a collective way to avert the problems in the stock market. Team work is needed to build a healthy, beautiful and transparent stock market. We seek cooperation from all including the stakeholders for the team work. The BSEC Chairman said, security should be given to the investors. If we cannot provide security then why the investor would come to invest? But BSEC can do nothing alone. For this reason everybody should work together. AH     

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday said the government is working to have adequate stock of medical logistics to deal with the situation caused by coronavirus.   "We need it…we need to have enough stock," he said adding that the government is also allowing private companies to import testing kits and other medical logistics.   While talking to reporters at his office, Dr Momen said the government is working hard to overcome the new challenge. "It's a challenge. We’ll be able to overcome the challenge by working together."   The Foreign Minister said Bangladesh has successfully overcome the challenges of cyclone and other natural disasters. "In the world, we’re known as a model of disaster preparedness country. We managed that successfully. "   Emphasizing joint efforts, Dr Momen said they are ready to accept any good recommendations to handle the situation. “We remain open to good recommendations. We’re also mobilizing our people (to create awareness)."   Dr Momen said they are in touch with China regarding medical logistics to be brought to Bangladesh.   Meanwhile, local companies have started producing PPEs (personal protective equipment) and masks to address the needs.   China recently announced its decision to donate emergency medical supplies, including a large number of test kits, to Bangladesh to fight coronavirus or Covid-19.   The Foreign Minister on Saturday said testing kits and medical logistics are ready in China and they will be brought to Bangladesh any time by a chartered flight.   This Chinese Emergency Humanitarian Aid Project includes coronavirus test kits for 10,000 people, 15,000 medical N95 masks, 10,000 medical protective clothing and 1,000 infrared thermometers.    Meanwhile, Jack Ma, co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, announced to help Bangladesh and some other Asian nations contain the coronavirus spread.   He made the announcement in a tweet on Saturday.   Ma promised to donate emergency supplies, including masks, test kits, protective suits, plus ventilators and thermometers.   The other nations are – Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.   Bangladesh announced its first coronavirus cases on March 8. Source: UNB AH

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said, there are more stocks of rice and foods in the country than the need. There is no logical reason for price hike of rice. Bangladesh became self-sufficient in food long ago. Then why the prices of rice are increasing that will be investigated. He said these at a view exchange meeting with rice businessmen association, wholesalers and owners of auto rice mills at the food directorate in the capital on Thursday. Soon after the election the prices of rice have increased 5 to 10 taka per kg in several stages suddenly. To find out the reasons behind the price increase the view exchange meeting was organized. The Food Minister said, farmers of the country produce paddy in the country, the mill owners process that paddy and reach rice to the retail sellers. The retail businessmen reach that rice to the consumers. There are middlemen in these three stages. Participants of these three stages have to take the responsibility if prices of rice increase. He said, after watching the matter on mass media I immediately talked to the Commerce Minister and called the concerned. We will discuss in detail here. We will find out the solution because the matter is associated with the general people. In the meeting Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said, the country where adequate food stocks are maintained there the price cannot be raised suddenly. We have to investigate the matter of price hike. Price of rice should be maintained normal at any cost. Mill owners presented in the meeting said, auto rice mill owners sell rice at 47 taka per kg. But how that rice is sold at 70 to 78 taka per kg in Dhaka? Mill owners have no association in this regard. They should not be blamed. AH

U.S. stocks set more records in quiet post-holiday trading Friday as technology companies again did much of the heavy lifting. Energy companies rose with the price of oil. Macy's and some of its retail counterparts rose after the department store's CEO said Black Friday sales were going well. Online titan Amazon made an even bigger gain. Oil prices and energy companies rose after Bloomberg reported that a group of key oil producers plans to extend production cuts until the end of 2018. "If you take the cumulative effect of online and foot traffic going into the stores, it's showing you a robust consumer spending pattern," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.34 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,602.42, its first close above 2,600. The Dow Jones industrial average added 31.81 points, or 0.1 percent, to 23,557.99. The Nasdaq composite gained 21.80 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,889.16. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies climbed 2.40 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,519.16. The Dow finished slightly below its record high from Tuesday but the other major indexes closed at all-time highs. Trading ended early after the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. Macy's CEO Jeffrey Gennette told CNBC holiday shopping is off to a good start with relatively few discounts and strong sales of some especially profitable products like winter clothing. Macy's gained 44 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $21.07 and other department stores climbed as well. Experts are mostly predicting strong sales over the holiday shopping period because of increased consumer confidence and a very low unemployment rate. The National Retail Federation trade group expects sales to grow at least as fast as they did last year. Big retailers like Wal-Mart and Urban Outfitters and Gap have also reported strong quarterly results recently. On Friday, Gap added 47 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $29.64 and electronics retailer Best Buy gained 51 cents to $57. Amazon's stock rose $29.84, or 2.6 percent, to $1,186. Amazon, along with tech giants Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Google's parent company Alphabet, have played a huge role in the market's gains this year. Those five companies combined are responsible for more than one-fourth of the value the S&P 500 has gained this year. Amazon and Facebook closed all-time highs Friday and the other three set record highs earlier this month. U.S. benchmark crude rose 93 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $58.95 a barrel in New York. Krosby said the Keystone oil pipeline spill earlier this month has also pushed U.S. oil prices higher by disrupting supplies. Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 31 cents to $63.86 a barrel in London. Hess gained 95 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $44.40 and Marathon Oil added 25 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $15.13. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn disclosed that he's acquired a 13.5 percent stake in SandRidge Energy. A week ago SandRidge agreed to buy oil and gas company Bonanza Creek Energy, and Icahn said he's opposed to the $736 million deal. Another major SandRidge investor, Fir Tree Partners, is also against the deal. SandRidge jumped $1.40, or 8 percent, to $18.90 while Bonanza tumbled $3.76, or 11.7 percent, to $28.38. In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline added 2 cents to $1.79 a gallon. Heating oil rose 2 cents to $1.95 a gallon. Natural gas sank 16 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $2.81. The dollar rose to 111.58 yen from 111.23 yen. The euro climbed to $1.1927 from $1.1853. Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.34 percent from 2.32 percent late Wednesday. Gold fell $4.90 to $1,287.30 an ounce. Silver lost 12 cents to $16.99 an ounce. Copper rose 3 cents to $3.17 a pound. France's CAC 40 rose 0.2 percent and the DAX in Germany gained 0.4 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.1 percent. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.1 percent while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rebounded 0.5 percent and South Korea's Kospi added 0.3 percent.