Two listed banks saw healthy earnings growth in the first half of 2015 despite political unrest in the first quarter and a cut in lending rates.

Islami Bank's net profits more than trebled, while Prime Bank's net profits more than doubled between January and June, compared to the same period a year ago.

Islami Bank logged in Tk 339.52 crore in net profits, up from Tk 97.41 crore a year earlier, the bank said in a filing to Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday.

But the rise in profits failed to strengthen investor confidence enough to chase after the bank's securities, which brought down its share prices by 2.62 percent.

On the premier bourse, each share of the bank traded between Tk 21.3 and Tk 25.1, before closing at Tk 22.9.

Prime Bank's net profits stood at Tk 216.99 crore at the end of June, up from Tk 101.19 crore a year ago.

The declaration also impressed the investors and led them to take positions in the bank's securities, leading to a 9.71 percent rise in its share prices.

The bank's shares traded between Tk 17.5 and Tk 19.2 each, before closing at Tk 19.2.

Although the lending rate has been cut, export-import started gaining momentum as political stability has been restored and the private sector credit growth is also on a gradual rise, analysts said.

The average lending rate was 11.82 percent in May, down from 13.23 percent in the same month last year, according to Bangladesh Bank.

On the other hand, private sector credit growth rose to 13.27 percent at the end of April from 12.27 percent in June last year.

BEXIMCO PHARMA

Beximco Pharmaceuticals' net profits rose 39.34 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year.

The listed drug manufacturer logged in Tk 100.91 crore in profits between January and June, up from Tk 72.42 crore in the same period a year ago.

The sharp earnings growth is attributable to a one-off tax adjustment in the second quarter. Last month, the government lowered the corporate tax rate for all listed companies, except telecoms and tobacco, to 25 percent from 27.5 percent.

Since the tax filing for last year is made in July 2015, there is a one-off retrospective tax adjustment for all previous quarters (Jan-Mar of 2015) during which the company was charged higher tax, said Brac-EPL Stock Brokerage, a security analyst. So the company's income tax provisioning exceeded its actual expense of Tk 21.91 crore by Tk 2.2 crore in the second quarter this year compared to the same quarter in 2014, it said.

The company also reported a 17.4 percent increase in turnover with a 15.4 percent rise in domestic market and 64 percent in export sales. Gross margin went down marginally but lower operating expense eventually improved the operating margin of the company.

Share prices of the Beximco Pharma rose 1.84 percent to Tk 66.3.

HEIDELBERG CEMENT

Heidelberg Cement's net profits also rose 5.1 percent in the first half of 2015.

The cement manufacturer's net profits stood at Tk 84.61 crore at the end of June this year, up from Tk 81.7 crore a year earlier.

Share price of the company however fell 5.16 percent to Tk 637.7.