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Profit-taking keeps bulls from going berserk Page 03

Friday, 09 March, 2012

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

GOvERNOR state Bank ofPakistan (sBP) YaseenAnwar has said the main goalof security printing for the

central bank is to prevent forgery, tam-pering, and counterfeiting of banknotes.

“We must stay ahead of counterfeit-ers and protect the integrity of our cur-rency,” he said while inaugurating theUpgraded security Inks ManufacturingFacility of sICPA (société Industrielle atCommerciale de ProduitsAgricoles), Pakistan here Thursday.

sBP governor observed the sound-ness of a nation’s currency was essential

to the soundness of its economy.“As the nation’s central bank, sBP

has a wide range of responsibilities re-lating to banknotes, from ensuring anadequate supply to protecting and main-taining confidence in the currency. To-gether with our partners at Pakistansecurity Printing Corporation (PsPC)and the law enforcement agencies, wecontinuously monitor the counterfeitingthreats for each denomination, andmake re-design decisions based on thesethreats,” he added.

Anwar said gaining and maintainingpublic confidence in the currency was akey role for any central bank. “Undoubt-edly, one of the major challenges facinga central bank in ensuring public confi-

dence in its currency is the rise of coun-terfeit banknotes,” he added.

He said advanced security fea-tures involving ink play a very impor-tant role in defeating the endeavorsof counterfeiters, thereby curbing cir-culation of fake currency. “Increas-ingly, as counterfeiters become moresophisticated, the central banksadmit that they need to push securityprinting for new technologies andnew substrates,” he said.

“To help prevent counterfeiting,sICPA’s security ink technology plays avital role in making our banknotes diffi-cult to counterfeit through state-of-the-art security features such as Opticalvariable Ink (OvI) design, infra-red ink

designs, Uv fluorescent ink, and sICPATALK ink images,” he said.

He observed it must be ensured thatink based security features stay and donot fade away early in the life of a ban-knote before it is taken out of circula-tion. “In the fast-paced environmentthat we live in, people need to rely in-stinctively on their senses of sight andtouch to authenticate a banknote in afraction of a second,” he added.

Anwar said the intaglio security fea-ture on banknotes was preferred by thegeneral public in Pakistan because onecould instinctively feel the raised surfaceby just touching the banknote. Anothermost commonly understood securityfeature on our banknotes of Rs500,

Rs1,000 and Rs5,000 denominationswas the Optical variable Ink (OvI) withwhich one could immediately detect thegenuineness of the banknote by tiltingthe note, he said.

“I am sure PsPC and sICPA must beworking to improve the longevity ofthese ink based security features, espe-cially in light of our climatic conditionsand usages by the general public, so thatmachine readability of these securityfeatures remains intact.”

The governor said all our new designbanknotes had machine readable fea-tures that were useful for processing anddetection of counterfeiting through noteprocessing machines and AutomatedTeller Machines (ATMs).

SBP must stay ahead of counterfeiters to protect integrity of currency, Anwar

EU grants Rs3.52b

to improve

education in SindhISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

European Union (EU) has committedRs3.52 billion to the sindh Educationsector support Programme to improvethe quality and access to public educa-tion in the province.The financing agreement granting thisamount to the provincial governmentof sindh was made public by the EUAmbassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemarkand secretary of the Economic AffairsDivision, Dr Waqar Masood Khan onThursday.speaking at the occasion, EU Ambassa-dor said EU firmly believes improvedquality and access to public educationis essential for the youth of Pakistan.The overall objective of EU funding tothis provincial education sector sup-port programme is to promote qualityand access in primary and secondaryeducation. It should also assist sindhin achieving the education-related Mil-lennium Development Goals.EU’s support will furthermore, assist thegovernment of sindh to improve its man-agement and service delivery in the edu-cation sector. EU is providing supportfor a similar programme for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. The expected re-sults and main activities of sindhprogramme are approval of a coherenteducation sector policy and plan by theprovincial government for which it willconduct a structured and inclusive sectorreview and dialogue with all educationdonors and civil society.sindh will implement a school consolida-tion plan with quality and access indica-tors and improve service deliverythrough more efficient teacher manage-ment, effective student-teacher ratios,reduction in teacher absenteeism,strengthened governance of the educa-tion system at school level, and improvedreliability of education statistics for plan-ning and management purposes.sindh will improve education service de-livery in the province through technicalcooperation focusing on strategic capac-ity development for policy formulation,improving sector financial management;performance based monitoring, access toquality education services, and donor co-ordination. The level of this grant indi-cates the importance EU attaches toeducation for the further development ofPakistan. EU support is provided in thecontext of the overall EU-Pakistan Devel-opment Cooperation Programme,through which EU has granted overRs46.4 billion to Pakistan.

KARACHI

GHULAM ABBAS

As the cabinet has ap-proved the negativelist of trade of over1,200 items withIndia, along with the

phase out deadline of December2012, the rice exporters of thecountry are going to hire foreignconsultants/layers to avoid nega-tive impacts of the trade liberali-sation.

According to sources, rice ex-porters who perturbed over theministry of commerce’s move toexclude rice from the proposednegative list and phase out of thelist this year, have decided to pre-pare a comprehensive sugges-tion/proposal to the governmentto minimise the impacts of riceimports from New Delhi in postMost Favoured Nation (MFN)regime.

“Though this was the duty ofthe government to evaluate/exam-ine the impacts of trade liberalisa-tion with India after over 60years, the exporters were doingthe job by themselves to save thedomestic market,” an official ofRice Exporters Association of Pak-

istan (REAP)who did not want tobe named, told Profit.

The reputed international lay-ers/consultant would prepare adetailed proposal on the part ofthe exporters to ministry of com-merce, he added.

“Despite the proposal made byREAP to give enough time to ex-amine the negative impacts ofnormalisation trade with theneighbouring country, the list wasfinalised by the ministry posting arisk over the important rice indus-try of the country,” he added.

In reply to a query, he said theministry should announce thesafeguarding measures prior tonormalisation of trade with Indiato remove concerns of the indus-try/exporters/growers of rice.

REAP, earlier, has recom-mended the government to in-clude all kinds of rice in theproposed negative list of tradewith India, the exporters haveshown their serious concerns overthe recent developments of im-porting the commodity from theneighbouring country and phaseout plan. The imports of cheapercommodity from outside the bor-der would not only cause us lossof domestic, but also international

markets including Afghanistan,Iran and Central Asian states.

It is worth mentioning herethat REAP in a recent statementhas claimed that traditionally theprice of Indian basmati and otherrice varieties used to be at least$100-300/MT higher than Pak-istani rice varieties, but after thearrival of a new crop in Oct-Nov2011; India taking advantage of itshuge stocks, bumper crop and de-valuation of its rupee by 15-20 percent reduced their prices by 20-30per cent and now they are selling$100-300/MT cheaper than Pak-istani basmati and other varieties,such as Kianat (1121). Recently,the government of India

has reduced MEP on basmatirice from $900-700/MT, which isfar below the Pakistani basmatirice prices of $900-1,100/MT.Earlier, Indian government hadlifted the ban on export of non-basmati rice and allowed export oftwo million tonnes of non-basmatirice. Consequently, Pakistan haslost its brown rice market of EU ofnearly 170,000 tonnes to Indiaand is facing great difficulties forexport of its basmati rice to Mid-dle East and other countries of theworld.

The prices of long grain Pak-istan irri had gone down drasti-cally, which is hitting the farmersof sindh who are demanding com-pensation for their losses. sec-ondly, the free import of cheaperIndian parboiled Pusa/1121 willreach the market of Afghanistanby land route and ruin whateverlittle export Pakistan is doing toAfghanistan and bring all the par-boiling plants imported fromIndia to a standstill. Once basmatiand 1121 sales are affected, it willindirectly hit the farmers who willnot grow basmati rice in futureand go for cheaper hybrid vari-eties threatening to close downthe $2.0 billion rice export of Pak-istan.

If the government allows theimport of Indian rice into Pak-istan, then our farmer should alsobe given the facilities of matchingwith the subsidies being given toIndian farmers, so that our farm-ers are able to protect their liveli-hoods. Indian government wasgiving about $30 billion in subsi-dies to its farmers. The cost ofurea and DAP was also less than50 per cent of the Pakistani pricesand Indian farmers were also get-ting cheaper electricity and fuel.

MFN regime to test rice exportersg REAP to hire international consultants/lawyers g Phase out of negative list by December threatening industry

PRO 9-03-2012_Layout 1 3/9/2012 12:11 AM Page 1

news02Friday, 9 March, 2012

Partial gas supply restored to fertiliser plant

LAHORE: Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited an-nounced on Thursday that sui Northern Gas PipelinesLimited (sNGPL) had started partial gas supply to theurea fertiliser plant of the company’s 100 per centowned subsidiary, DH Fertilisers Limited. Gas startedto reach the plant on Tuesday and start-up activitieswere initiated accordingly. The production is expectedto start by Friday. Dawood Hercules also informed thestock exchanges of this development through a notice,as required by the material information disclosure pro-visions of the listing rules. STAFF REPORTER

Dollar reserves slide to $16.336bn

KARACHI: The country’s foreign exchange reservesfurther shrank by $88 million or 0.5 per cent during theweek that ended on March 2, the central bank reportedon Thursday. During the week in review, the country’sdollar holding depleted to $16.336 million from $16.424billion of the previous week ending on February 24. Thestate Bank held $11.897 billion, down $165 million or1.3 per cent compared to $12.062 billion that the bankpossessed in the preceding week. The commercialbanks, however, did an upset by m intaining dollar re-serves worth $4.438 billion. This depicts an increase of1.7 per cent or $76 million when compared with $4.362billion that the banks held last week. Country’s dollarreserves, after hitting the record $18.31 billion mark inJuly 2011, are constantly contracting, due to what thecentral bank believes repayment of foreign loans. Thestate Bank repaid at least $399 million to the Interna-tional Monetary Fund (IMF) at the end of last month(February) with economic managers reportedly havingsaid the repayment of $1.1 billion IMF repayments byJune 2012 were already budgeted, thus would have noimpact on the fragile economy. STAFF REPORTER

International Conference Pak Finance 2012

LAHORE: To promote the economic thought of Iqbaland to find practical possibilities of its implementation,International Conference Pak Finance 2012 will be heldwith academic collaboration of Iqbal Academy Pakistan.In line with the announcement of prime minister of Pak-istan to declare 2012 as Iqbal Year, this is the Iqbal Acad-emy Pakistan’s first major event to be held in Lahore onMarch 28-29, 2012. Pak Finance 2012 is being organisedby eTechnologies and Management (eTeaM), Lahore.Addressing to a joint press conference here at LahorePress Club, Head of Academic Iqbal Academy TahirHameed Tanoli and CEO eTeaM Wahid Noor Malik saidthe event would have a conference titled ‘Islamic Fi-nance: Breaking Chains of Exploitation and an IslamicFinancial Products Expo’. They said the event aims tobring various stakeholders of Islamic finance under oneroof and provide a common platform where internationalexperts, academics, research scholars, policy makers,regulators, Islamic finance and takaful providers, repre-sentatives of trade bodies and business associations, gov-ernment functionaries and end users can exchange theirviews and share ideas for growth and development of thefast growing sector of Islamic Finance. STAFF REPORTER

Sharjah Export Display Centre Project to be prioritised

KARACHI: The sharjah Export Display Centre Proj-ect, for which land was made available by the UAEgovernment, can become a viable venue to projectPakistani exports in UAE and Gulf region, if it is takenup by the business community. This was agreed uponby all participants in a meeting held between JamilAhmed Khan, Ambassador of Pakistan to UAE andleading members of the business community at theFederation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce andIndustry (FPCCI) head office in Karachi. He urged allbusinessmen to contemplate the possibility of openingrepresentative offices in UAE, in order to further ex-pand their exports. He also urged the business com-munity to participate actively in the March 23rdcelebrations being hosted by Pakistan’s embassy inUAE, stating that such events provided a great oppor-tunity to businessmen to network with their foreigncounterparts. While making a detailed presentationon the trade and investment opportunities for Pak-istani businesses in the UAE, he identified the follow-ing sectors carrying great potential for ourbusinessmen: oil and gas, agricultural products, edu-cation and health. STAFF REPORTER

Raza resigns as NBP president

KARACHI: The President of National Bank of Pakistan(NBP) syed Ali Raza has tendered his resignation withimmediate effect, the industry sources told Profit. Theysaid the federal government has accepted the resigna-tion of Raza whose immediate sacking had been orderedby the supreme Court of Pakistan in its January 14th de-cree. The apex court’s order came in view of the banker’sappointment as President NBP for the fifth consecutivetime. Also, the bank confirmed the reports by sharing amaterilal infomration with its shareholders at the coun-try’s three stock exchanges in Karachi, Islamabad andLahore on Wednesday. “The federal government has ac-cepted the resignation of Mr s Ali Raza,” said bank’s sec-retary sM Ali Zamin, in a notice to the Karachi stockExchange here. Raza, a senior banker, stepped down asa chairman Board of Directors of the bank with immedi-ate effect, the secretary said. STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

THE search for new hy-drocarbon reservoirsin the country hasstarted to show somesigns of recovery as 12

exploratory wells were drilled in8MFY12 as against seven wellsspudded in the corresponding pe-riod last year.

Though encouraging, the ac-tivity levels are still far below thelevels witnessed in FY05-08, saidanalysts at Topline Research.

“Heightened security environ-ment particularly in KPK andBalochistan along with strainedliquidity position because of no-torious circular debt have cau-tioned oil and gas explorers toremain conservative in theirdrilling approach,” viewed Nau-man Khan.

Their focus, analysts said,continued to remain on maximis-ing production profile of their ex-isting fields, while minimisingtheir risk through joint ventures.The sector drilled 19 develop-ment/appraisal wells similar tothe numbers witnessed last year.

“We expect Exploration andDevelopment (E&D) activity toremain subdued in coming dayson account of favourable pricingscenario and the sector’s abilityto yield optimal production pro-file from existing reservoirs,”Khan said.

During 8MFY12, he said, thesector had drilled a total of 31E&D wells accomplishing only 41per cent of the full year target of76 wells, faring a little better thanlast year.

In the same period last year,the sector accomplished only 33per cent of its target of 80 wells,

while ended up completing only60 per cent of the target in thefull year.

Bifurcation of the numbersfurther reveal that activity isslanted towards developmentwells with 19 development welldrilled versus the full year targetof 45 wells. On exploratory front,12 wells have been spudded asagainst target of 31 wells in FY12.

Amongst the listed compa-nies, POL is in the process ofdrilling 2 exploratory wells how-ever, it has not drilled any devel-opment well so far in the year.Company’s Dhulian deep-01 is inthe testing phase and any positivenews flow can positively affectthe company’s profitability goingforward. PPL, on the other end ofthe spectrum has not initiatedany new exploratory well and hasdrilled only one development wellin its own operating lease.

However, company has ashare in additional four wellsthrough its Jv.

The country’s largest ex-plorer, OGDCL, seems to be thehardest hit by the circular debt.The company initiated only onenew exploratory block against thetarget of 12 wells and has spud-ded seven development wellsagainst the target of 15 wells.

As regards to new discoveries,this year so far has remained un-eventful for the listed sector.

A total of four discoveries,predominantly gas with small dis-covery size, so far have been an-nounced in the year all fromcarryover wells of last year.

The major excitement of theyear has come from discovery ofaugment in reservoir size fromTal and Naspha block, with PPLand POL standing as prime bene-ficiaries.

Security, circular debt taking toll on exploration, development of oil and gas

ISLAMABAD

AMER SIAL

WHILE informing that itsunder-construction 56MW wind power project

in Jhimpir coastal area of sindhwill commence operations fromDecember this year, the Zorlu En-ergy Group of Turkey has showninterest for investment in another200 MW wind power project.

A three member delegation of thecompany led by Ibrahim sinnon Akcalled on the Minister for Water andPower syed Naveed Qamar and in-formed that financial close for the 56MW project was achieved and all otherrequirements were complete and con-

struction was going on at the site.An official source said the

Turkish investors informed thatthey have decided to make furtherinvestment to set up another windproject of 200 MW. They said theywere already started work on thenew project. They asked for theprovision of land in the wind corri-dor in coastal area of sindh fortheir 200 MW wind project.

Turkish firm has alreadyawarded contract to Danish windturbine manufacturer vestas for 28MW turbines for its wind powerproject. Delivery of the wind tur-bines is scheduled to start in thefirst half of this year and the windpower project is expected to be

completed by the end of the currentyear. The first phase of the windpower project comprising 6 MWhas been in operation since 2009.

Zorlu’s 56 MW wind powerplant will have an estimated annualproduction of 159,000 MWh peryear, which corresponds to the res-idential electricity consumption ofapproximately 350,000 persons inPakistan. The wind farm will savethe environment from more than90,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions onan annual basis. Appreciating theTurkish investment in the alterna-tive energy projects, the ministersaid that it will attract more invest-ment in the renewable energy sec-tor. He said that the government

has planned to generate 1500 MWon fast track basis from wind energyand upfront tariff has been an-nounced in this regard to facilitatethe investors. The minister as-sured the delegation that land for200 MW wind project will be pro-vided to the company on lease atthe earliest and directed theAEDB to take up the matter withsindh for early allotment. He saidthe government will facilitate theZorlu Energy Group and otherTurkish investors and asked themto make more investment in thissector. He said Pakistan is facingenergy crisis and the governmentis taking all possible steps to over-come the energy shortages.

Zorlu plans another 200 MW wind power in Pakistan

LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

GOvERNOR Khar-toum AbdelrahmanAhmed Elkhedir willvisit Pakistan soon to

further strengthen bilateraleconomic relations between thetwo brotherly countries.

The governor was talking toa six member Lahore Chamberof Commerce (LCCI) delega-tion, headed by LCCI seniorvice President Kashif YounisMeher, at a breakfast meetingin Khartoum. sudan Ambassa-dor in Pakistan Alshafie AhmedMohammad was also present atthe meeting.

Abdelrahman AhmedElkhedir said sudan govern-ment attaches great importanceto its relations with brotherlycountry Pakistan and wouldcontinue to explore new av-enues for cooperation betweenthe two sides.

He said LCCI has taken aright decision to send a delega-tion to sudan, as despite have ahuge potential in a number ofareas both the sides have verylittle bilateral trade.

The governor agreed withLCCI senior vice President’sproposal regarding early for-mation of a working group,

comprising economic expertsfrom the two sides to identifyand remove the hurdles beingfaced by the business commu-nity in Pakistan and sudan.

speaking on the occasion,head of the delegation andLCCI senior vice PresidentKashif Younis Meher said LCCIwas advocating the idea ofCommon Muslim Market andsudan should extend maximumsupport so that the idea can bematerialised in coming years.

“since, Pakistan and sudanare member countries of OIC,so it gives us more encourage-ment to establish close tradeand economic relations. More-over, we take sudan as a keyplayer to venture into Africawhich offers great opportuni-ties of trade. Considering thebusiness environment here insudan, particularly in farmingindustry, fishing, mineral re-sources, we will surely like toevaluate the potential for Pak-istani businessmen who are re-lated to these sectors.”

Kashif Younis Meher saidthat Pakistan and sudan needto enhance the two way tradevolume as it stands consider-ably below to the trade poten-tial. The bilateral trade analysisof the last three years calls forgreater efforts to be made to

initially get over the $100 mil-lion mark. “We need to identifythe bottlenecks which are notletting us take benefits fromeach other’s strong areas. I be-lieve, our initiative of takingthis businessmen delegation tosudan will go a long way in im-proving the current level of bi-lateral trade.”

Pakistan’s major exports tosudan include salt, sulphur,earth, stone, plaster, lime andcement, machinery, pharma-ceutical products, articles oftextile, cereals, articles of ironor steel, manmade staple fi-bres, paper and paperboard,etc. Whereas, Pakistan’s mainimports from sudan are cotton,raw hides and skins, leather,iron and steel etc.

If some preference is givento Pakistani exporters, they candefinitely take the lead in ex-porting various consumergoods to sudan which can fur-ther be marketed to its border-ing countries.

LCCI delegation also had ameeting with sudanese Com-merce Minister Ali Eljelani inthe afternoon and discussed anumber of trade related pro-posals. The two sides also re-viewed possibilities of jointventures between the twocountries.

Khartoum governor to soon visit Pakistan

SECP approves

Internet Trading

Regulations for KSEISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

SECURITIEs and Exchange Commis-sion of Pakistan (sECP) has ap-proved the Internet Trading

Regulations for Karachi stock Exchangeto ensure effective and improved moni-toring of internet based trading activitiesoffered by brokers in the local capitalmarket. Under the regulatory framework,any member registered with sECP as brokerwill be eligible to apply to the stock ex-change for providing internet based tradingservices subject to fulfillment of minimumconditions as prescribed. The implementa-tion of these regulations will not only bene-fits the investors in terms of efficiency andease of trade execution with appropriate riskmanagement, but will also contribute posi-tively in expanding the existing limited mar-ket outreach. The regulationscomprehensively cover various aspects of in-ternet based trading activities while effec-tively addressing issues unique to thissegment including risks management, de-lays and outages in brokers’ internet basedsystem, security and privacy of investors’ ac-counts. The regulations framed in line withinternational best practices will replace theInternet Trading Guidelines issued by theregulator earlier in the year 2005. The ear-lier guidelines did not adequately cater forthe latest development in information tech-nology globe witnessed over the period andneeded to be replaced with the new regula-tions for effective enforcement and compli-ance by market intermediaries.

PRO 9-03-2012_Layout 1 3/9/2012 12:11 AM Page 2

Warid engages in career counseling

at IBA Career Fair

KARACHI: Aimed at transforming futures by pro-viding lucrative learning and growth opportunities,Warid Telecom reached out to students at IBA CareerFair 2012. The company’s recruitment and staffingteam along with senior team member from Organisa-tion Development and Training, provided careercounseling, coaching and career advice to the stu-dents. PRESS RELEASE

Nominations open for 2012 WISE

prize for education

DOHA: The search has begun for an individual – orgroup – to become the next Laureate of the WIsEPrize for education. This is the first global prize to rec-ognize world-class contributors to education at a sim-ilar level to other major prizes for science, literature,peace or economics. The WIsE Prize for Education,now in its second year, pays tribute to those in any sec-tor whose achievements has had a significant and last-ing impact upon education at any level. The laureatereceives $500,000 and a gold medal. PRESS RELEASE

Etihad Airways brings joy to deaf children

LAHORE: Etihad Airways, the national airline of theUnited Arab Emirates, has launched its 2012 Corpo-

rate social Responsibility programme in Pakistanwith a visit to the Deaf Reach school and TrainingCentre in Karachi. The school, which is part of theFamily Educational services Foundation (FEsF),seeks to empower hearing impaired children,teenagers and young adults in urban and rural areasby teaching them vocational skills. The courses arealso designed to help students become self-sufficientand meet their specific academic and vocationalneeds. PRESS RELEASE

Nationwide Financial Literacy

Programme’s press briefing at SBP

KARACHI: state Bank of Pakistan (sBP) haslaunched the Nationwide Financial Literacy Pro-gramme (NFLP) with an endowment from Asian De-velopment Bank The programme is chaired by acommittee with representatives from Pakistan BanksAssociation (PBA), Pakistan Microfinance Network(PMN) and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund(PPAF). Its purpose is to impart knowledge and un-derstanding of basic financial concepts, products andservices to low-income Pakistanis in order to enablebetter economic decisions. For the current pilot phasewhich Bearing Point is implementing, the programaims to reach out to the common people throughmass media massaging over radio and television par-ticularly in the regional channels. It will also impartclass room training on financial education to 30,000beneficiaries, and another 15,000 people throughstreet theatres. PRESS RELEASE

Dubai Islamic Bank earns

Rs316 million in 2011

KARACHI: Board of Directors of Dubai IslamicBank Pakistan Limited (DIBPL) recently held a meet-ing to approve its financial statements for the yearended December 31, 2011. DIBPL is a subsidiary ofDubai Islamic Bank UAE, the world’s first IslamicBank. The year 2011 marked numerous achievementsfor DIBPL. On the financial side, the Bank has re-ported a year end Profit before Tax of Rs316 million.Furthermore, a 22.5 per cent deposit growth was

achieved in comparison to 2010, taking total depositsto Rs38.49 billion in 2011. On the asset side, DIBPL’sasset base rose by 20.8 per cent in contrast to 2010increasing the asset base to Rs48.1 billion in 2011. TheBank’s investments grew substantially by 117.6 percent over the year, taking total investments to Rs12.93billion. PRESS RELEASE

Accommodation given to Diamer

Basha Dam affectees

LAHORE: In line with the decision taken by the Pak-istan Water and Power Development Authority(WAPDA), the first installment to construct tempo-rary housing facility has been handed over to all fam-ilies whose lands had been acquired in Thor valley forconstruction of Diamer Basha Dam Project (DBDP).WAPDA General Manager (Land Acquisition and Re-settlement) Dr Raheal Ahmad siddiqui and GeneralManager (DBDP) shoukat Hussain Bhatti deliveredthe cheques to the families in Thor valley of Diamerdistrict in Gilgit Baltistan. In a major departure fromexisting practice in land acquisition and resettlement,WAPDA in its meeting held on February 21, decidedto provide temporary housing facilities to all affectedfamilies in Thor valley. PRESS RELEASE

Babyshop organises Toy Fest

LAHORE: Babyshop recently conducted a Toy Festevent at their newly opened location at Mall One, onMain Boulevard, Gulberg. This event was a fun-filledactivity for children, babies and mommies with an ex-citing fashion show as the highlight of the event. Chil-dren, dressed up in costumes, ranging fromprincesses to angels to the devil, walked on the rampwith their mommies and paraded their stunning cos-tumes in front of the celebrity judges. PRESS RELEASE

HBL staff creates Guinness world records

LAHORE: Employees of HBL created two Guinnessworld records at their annual sales conference. Therecords created at the sharjah Cricket stadium, UAE– include the World’s Longest Handshake Chain of274 people beating the previous record of 188, and the

World’s Longest Graffiti scroll themed on “Colors ofPakistan”. Using spray paint only, HBL employeescreated a colourful scroll of 1,924 metres beating aprevious record of 1,676 metres. “The final measure-ment is 1,924 metres” announced Tarika vara, the ad-judicator from Guinness as HBL employees brokeinto chants of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. PRESS RELEASE

BP signs mandate with Chevron Pakistan

KARACHI: standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan)Limited has been awarded cash management man-date by Chevron Pakistan Limited. This was first eversuch mandate awarded by Chevron to standard Char-tered globally. The solution entails automation ofChevron Pakistan Limited’s payments processingthrough Host2Host integration of Chevron’s GlobalERP (sAP) with standard Chartered’s straight2Bankaccess and streamlining of collections servicesthrough the Bank’s countrywide branch network. Thisarrangement provides a dynamic platform with stateof the art solutions for Chevron Pakistan Limited byoffering operational efficiency, reduced risk, loweredcost and improved transparency. PRESS RELEASE

news

Friday, 9 March, 2012

03

CORPORATE CORNER

LAHORE: Ehsan Talat – Brand Manager, Neste Everyday,receiving memento from S Masood Hashmi, PresidentMAP at the 25-year celebrations of MarketingAssociation of Pakistan, Lahore Chapter. Also seen hereis Mr Khaliq Ur Rehman–Vice President, MAP LahoreChapter. PRESS RELEASE

Major Gainers

Company Open High Low Close Change Turnover

Rafhan Maize Product 2720.00 2854.00 2721.00 2846.83 126.83 31UniLever Pak Ltd. 5650.00 5700.00 5500.00 5699.99 49.99 1,696Bata (Pak) Ltd. 627.01 650.00 630.00 641.00 13.99 55Millat TractorsSPOT 493.79 512.50 493.00 500.06 6.27 48,828Pak.Int.Con. SD 138.26 145.17 145.17 145.17 6.91 33,734

Major Losers

Nestle PakistanXD 4209.37 4202.00 4133.00 4169.57 -39.80 43Siemens Pakistan 790.00 775.00 775.00 775.00 -15.00 70Colgate Palmolive 894.32 930.00 855.00 880.00 -14.32 336Attock PetroleumXD 452.66 452.90 448.00 448.39 -4.27 11,129Shell Pakistan 201.39 199.30 195.25 197.42 -3.97 66,087

Volume Leaders

Fauji Cement 5.02 5.54 5.15 5.49 0.47 44,363,204Lafarge Pakistan 2.79 3.40 2.83 3.36 0.57 33,360,303Azgard Nine 7.28 7.99 7.35 7.85 0.57 18,486,074Dewan Cement 2.01 3.01 2.06 3.01 1.00 15,392,698JS Bank Ltd 4.74 5.74 4.80 5.74 1.00 15,299,824

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 90.7577UK Pound 143.6423Japanese Yen 1.1130Euro 119.9091

Dollar East Rates Buy Sell

US Dollar 90.70 91.20

Euro 119.62 120.49

Great Britain Pound 142.66 143.69

Japanese Yen 1.1036 1.1109

Canadian Dollar 90.78 91.92

Hong Kong Dollar 11.54 11.69

UAE Dirham 24.65 24.80

Saudi Riyal 24.13 24.29

Australian Dollar 95.57 97.69

KARACHIISMAIL DILAWAR

THE Karachi stocks marketwhereas is peaking to newhighs in terms of tradingvolumes on the back of in-

vestors’ hope for the materialisa-tion of government’s assurancesregarding the implementation of areformed CGT regime from April 1,the market observers feel uncom-fortable with the rallying tradesthat, they believe, should havebeen wide-board and not concen-trated in nature.

Thursday saw the tradedshares at KsE’s ready-counter hit-ting a new high of 358 millionshares up by 12 per cent or 39 mil-lion shares compared to 318 mil-lion of the previous day.

The benchmark KsE100-shareindex also rallying well above

13,000 points gaining 26 points onThursday to close at 13,271.39points. But, this rally on account oftrades and index, the analysts say,was not reflective of the situationon ground.

“Too many stocks adding toofew points to the index,” saidKhurram schehzad, head of re-search at InvestCap.

The index is mainly driven bytraditional heavyweights from se-lected sectors like oil and gas,FMCG, fertiliser and banks.

These scrips the analysts saidhad added the most to the bench-mark index since 12th of January.The market has so far yielded asolid gain of 17 per cent YTD12.

“Glancing closely through thebroader trends reveals that therestill has been a concentrated activ-ity (in terms of volumes) towardsthe lower-tier scrips compared to a

wide-board rally that should havebeen the case,” schehzad viewed.

Cumulatively, the analyst said,the top-10 most influencing stocksadded a whopping 1,257 points tothe index where the index, in total,gained 1,897 points since the com-mencement of the year 2012.

This translated into a 2/3rd or66 per cent contribution to the cur-rent market rally while the rest wasshared by the remaining 90 scripsconstituting the benchmark.

On the contrary, volumes con-tribution from the very set ofstocks has been only 15 per cent byfar, with the National Bank andFauji Fertilizer Company being ontop. “85 per cent of the market ac-tivity at the bourse has been gener-ated through either 2nd or 3rd-tierstocks,” said schehzad.

“Take example of yesterday’smarket activity when KsE100 was

down primarily due to selling ob-served in the Oil and Gas sectorwith volumes in the same being atminuscule levels while the totalmarket volumes easily crossed300mn mark!,” he added.

Also Thursday’s jump on thevolumes front the analysts attrib-uted to the second and third tierscrips. “The stocks closed higheramid higher trades post major an-nouncements at KsE led by secondand third tier stocks on strong val-uations,” said Ashen Mehanti, di-rector at Arif Habib securities.

The market observers link theprevailing record breaking spirit atthe Karachi bourse to the govern-ment’s future action towards itscommitment on the CGT-relatedreforms saying a long stretch fromApril 01 might have serious conse-quences on both market volumesas well as the returns.

Apprehensions over narrow rangeof contributors to KSE 100 index

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

Amid higher trading volumes theKarachi stocks market gained26.44 points on Thursday asprofit-taking restrained the bench-mark index to set a new record.

“The KsE-100 yet again triedto climb above the new high, how-ever, could not close above thehigh for the current uptrend,”viewed Abdul Azeem of InvestCap.

The profit-taking at strengthforced the market to retreat, as itclosed with only 26 points positive,said the analyst. The KsE 100-shareindex closed at 13,271.39 pointsagainst 13,244.95 points of Wednes-day. The intraday high and low forthe index was recorded at 13,364.66points and 13,244.95 points.

“The stocks closed higher amidhigher trades post major an-nouncements at KsE led by secondand third tier stocks on strong val-uations,” said Ashen Mehanti ofArif Habib securities. The totaltraded shares at the ready-counterwere recorded peaking to 358.177million shares compared to318.609 million shares of a last ses-sion. The trading value, however,eased down to Rs5.884 billion from

the previous Rs7.058 billion.“Normal turnover for the day is

suggesting no panic on part of thebulls,” said analyst Azeem. Themarket capital rose slightly toRs3.448 trillion against Rs3.440trillion. In total 391 scrips weretraded of which 227 gained, 87 lostwhile 77 remained unchanged.

The turnover in future con-tracts lowered and closed at 12.950million shares as against 15.374

million of last day. Fauji Cementmaintained the top slot in terms ofvolumes with its traded shares ac-counting for 44.363 million eachpriced at Rs5.02 in the openingand Rs5.49 in the closing.

According to Mehanti, the fac-tors that played as catalyst onThursday include a renewed for-eign interest, recovery in globalstocks and commodities after de-velopments in Greece crucial debtswap, retail and institutional sup-port ahead of reformed CGTregime implementation, resump-tion of gas supplies in fertilizer sec-tor and easing circular debtconcerns in power sector.

This, he said, was despite theinvestors’ concerns for rising cur-rent account deficit on higherglobal commodities.

Profit-taking keeps bulls from going berserk

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