Business and Economic Commentary by Christopher Ram
Beginning with the exchange between the Chairman and a shareholder at Banks DIH Limited Annual General Meeting held on 27 January 2024, there appears to have been much interest in the share prices of public companies. In fact, this writer holds the view that because of a quirk in how prices of shares are determined on the Stock Exchange; the terrible illiquidity in the marketplace for shares, the awful and inexplicable dividend policy of companies and the lack of investment opportunities, the demand for the few shares offered for sale, the prices of the shares of several of the companies cannot be easily justified.
Here is a picture of the share price movements of eight of the public companies over the period January 2019 to December 2023. With an acknowledged anomaly in the shares of Caribbean Container Inc.(see S/N letter column of 8 February, 2024, I consider it prudent to exclude the figures for that company.
