PRO 07-08-2012_Layout 1 8/6/2012 11:51 PM Page 1
Tuesday, 7 August, 2012
New Delhi presses the restart button… system crashes
No more
mangoes for you! Pakistanis to halt mango exports to US
India’s new finance minister vows to ‘restart growth’ NEW DELHI
Chidambaram took over the portfolio on the same day as india suffered a massive power outage that highlighted its creaking infrastructure. The Congress-led government, Chidambaram said, would take steps to attract investments in mutual funds and insurance and bring india’s fiscal consolidation process back on track. He also said that with the threat of india’s third drought in a decade looming, the left-leaning government must provide relief to parched farm areas and that the “fiscal correction” would have to be fairly shared. He also called for the cooperation of parliament, which has been paralysed over long-stalled economic reforms to open up india’s still inwardlooking economy. Chidambaram, who has been keen on reforming the heavily regulated and state-controlled economy — a legacy of socialist thinking in postindependence india —- will have the job of boosting the economy ahead of the 2014 elections. He indicated he wanted lower interest rates to spur investment and consumption. The central bank has said it wants inflation to come down from elevated levels of over seven percent before cutting borrowing costs. “sometimes it is necessary to take carefully calibrated risks,” said Chidambaram, whose periods as finance minister included the time from 2004 to 2008 when india’s growth was near double-digits.
AFP
I
ndia’s new pro-market finance minister on Monday pledged to takes steps to restore foreign investors’ faith in asia’s third-largest economy and “restart the growth engine”. P. Chidambaram, in his first policy statement since taking over last week, said india’s stuttering economy faced a string of challenges from stubborn inflation to high interest rates and a spiralling fiscal deficit. But “with sound policies, good governance and effective implementation, we will be able to overcome these challenges,” said Chidambaram, now in his third stint as finance minister. “The key to restart the growth engine is to attract more investment — both from domestic investors and foreign investors,” he said. india’s once-booming economy grew just 5.3 percent between January and March — its slowest annual quarterly expansion in nine years. He said there was still “enormous goodwill” globally for india, despite anger over recent government moves seen as hostile to foreign investors, and said most people were keeping “faith with the india growth story”. His predecessor, Pranab Mukherjee, who now occupies the ceremonial role of president, annoyed foreign investors in his March budget
Need wheat? Or maybe some textile?
Pakistan offers exports to Iran ISLAMABAD APP
senate Chairman syed nayyer Hussain Bokhari on sunday met with iranian Foreign Minister ali akbar salehi in Tehran and discussed matters related to economic and trade relations between the two Muslim countries. Emphasizing the significance of economic relations between the two countries, the senate Chairman, who is visiting iran, said Pakistan could offer many items to iran, including wheat and textile. He said the potential of both the countries should be fully exploited to the benefit of their people, said a message received here from Tehran. Referring to the iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, Bokhari said that iran’s gas could help Pakistan in overcoming the energy crisis in Pakistan. describing Pakistan and iran as two major countries in the region, Bokhari said that the cooperation between the two countries could establish peace and stability in the region. Highlighting the significance of parliamentary cooperation between iran and Pakistan, he said that there should be more exchange of parliamentary delegations. The iranian Foreign Minister referred to cultural and religious commonalities between both the countries and said that there was no limit to the expansion of economic relations between iran and Pakistan. He said that Pakistan and iran enjoyed the best of political relations at this item as their Presidents had full understanding of major international and regional issues. The iranian Foreign Minister expressed the hope that the visit of the senate Chairman Bokhari would help further reinforce Pakistaniran relations in all fields.
with sweeping anti-tax evasion rules — some of them retroactive. Chidambaram promised to review the tax measures to find “fair” solutions, adding that india wanted a “non-adversarial” tax regime. He said the government would aim to raise the level of investment to 38 percent of GdP, from 32 percent last year. He added it was key to remove any “distrust” in investors’ minds since investment “is an act of faith”. attracting foreign investment is required to upgrade india’s dilapidated airports, roads, ports and other infrastructure in order to ease bottlenecks and spur growth.
KARACHI AFP
Pakistanis are abandoning muchpublicised mango exports to the United states after just a year because american requirements made profit margins too narrow, members of the industry said Monday. in 2011, Pakistani growers exported five tons of the country’s signature fruit to the United states and had hoped for a higher yield this year. But if exports grind to a halt, it could prove embarrassing for efforts dubbed “mango diplomacy” in 2010 when Us secretary of state Hillary Clinton offered to help Pakistan export the fruit in a bid to ease anti-americanism. The Us embassy was unavailable for comment, but announced in January that Us support had helped select mango growers increase regional exports by more than 60 percent and revenue by more than $4 million over the past year. Pakistani officials confirmed the assistance, but said sending mangoes to the United states was not cost effective. “Pakistan cannot export mangoes to the United states this season because of certain restrictions, which the growers feel makes the business unprofitable,” Kashif niazi, an official at the commerce ministry, told aFP. an official at the Trade development authority of Pakistan, which regulates exports, said producers had been annoyed by compulsory Us irradiation in Chicago that ate into their profits. although Pakistan has its own irradiation plant, it has not been approved by the United states.
July to see car sales set in
rEd zoNE
Shares rally, euro up on US jobs, hopes for Europe action TOKYO AGENCIES
asian shares rallied to a three-month high and the euro touched a one-month high against the dollar on Monday, as a stronger-than-expected U.s. jobs data and emerging optimism for European action on the debt crisis bolstered risk appetite. But caution is likely to remain until concrete measures are taken, which may be weeks away, and investors in the meantime will be looking to data out of China starting Thursday – from trade to bank loans and investment — to give the global economic outlook a further lift. China’s central bank on sunday pledged to intensify monetary policy fine-tuning and improve credit policy to bolster the world’s second largest economy. With the euro zone debt crisis crippling global economic activity, southeast asia’s largest
KARACHI STAFF rEPorT
economy, indonesia, will likely report its second quarter gross domestic product grew 6.1 percent on Monday, indicating its once-sizzling economy is starting to cool and show gaps in its resilience against a global slowdown. MsCi’s broadest index of asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.6 percent to its highest in three months, with Hong Kong shares rallying 2 percent to be among the region’s top performers. Japan’s nikkei stock average jumped 1.7 percent. “Time has come to shift funds to risk assets, as markets have very limited room for further downside from here,” said Tetsu Emori, a Tokyo-based commodities fund manager at astmax investments. “investors may be questioning why they rushed to sell when the ECB and the Fed both have been saying they will take action when necessary. They never said they won’t do anything.”
The market observers, citing discussions with industry experts, expect soft sales in local automobile industry during the month of July. The lower numbers are primarily on account of completion of Punjab taxi scheme, prompt buying by dealers before price hike in June causing inventory pile up in the market and reduced price differential between local and imported CBUs. according to analysts at Topline Research, local industry sales may decline by 30 to 40% MoM during July compared to 19k in June 2012 with PsMC receiving the major hit. Companies wise break up reveals that Pak suzuki sale is expected to decline by 45-50 % in July from 11k units sold in the previous month to 5700-6200 units likely in July 2012 This is in line with our expectations where we expect 2H2012 sales to decline by 31% as compared to 62k units in 1H2012. This is on account of no taxi scheme in the 2H2012 and short term effect of ban on CnG. On the other hand, the indus motor sales are expected to decline 25-30 % to 3.9k to 4.1k units in July as compared to 5.5k in June 2012.
Asian markets bounce on US jobs figures, ECB hopes HONG KONG AGENCIES
asian markets rebounded strongly Monday on betterthan-expected Us jobs data while traders took a more positive view of the European Central Bank’s position on the eurozone debt crisis. The single currency hit its highest level against the dollar in a month as concerns over the eurozone and the Us eased, while hopes grew that Greece will meet its obligations to qualify for another tranche of rescue cash. Tokyo rose 1.72 percent by the break, Hong Kong jumped 2.03 percent, sydney was 1.21 percent higher and seoul climbed 2.05 percent. shanghai added 0.28 percent as dealers tentatively awaited the release of key economic data on the world’s number two economy later in the week. in the United states the Labor department said Friday that the economy added 163,000 jobs in July — the strongest gain since February and beating forecasts for a gain of 100,000. despite a 0.1 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent the figures were welcomed by investors who took the report as a sign of resilience
in the world’s number one economy. The result sent Wall street surging. The dow jumped 1.69 percent, the nasdaq climbed 2.00 percent and the s&P 500 rose 1.90 percent. The figures were welcome news for the markets, which had been sent tumbling on Thursday after the ECB failed to announce any concrete plans to support the euro, despite comment from its head Mario draghi that it would do whatever was needed. However, the initial disappointment was reversed in Europe and on Wall street after bank officials said Friday it could intervene and buy the bonds of struggling eurozone countries without unanimous approval. Those comments raised hopes that a bond buying programme to help struggling countries such as spain and italy is still possible. The ECB “seems to be cooking up something internally”, Jung seung-jae, analyst at Mirae asset securities in south Korea, told dow Jones newswires. “action may come earlier than expected.” On currency markets the euro surged in early trade to a one-month high of $1.2442 as traders became more confident in higher-risk, higher-yielding assets. The currency later eased and sat at $1.2402,
still up from $1.2381 in late trade in new York Friday. The euro bought 97.20 yen compared with 97.30 yen in new York, although well up from the 95.18 yen in Tokyo on Friday. The dollar bought 78.40 yen, from 78.59 yen. also providing some support to markets were comments from Greece’s international creditors sunday that the country was committed to hammering out further spending cuts to secure a new batch of aid.
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Business 02 EUro mixEd in Asian trade TOKYO
T
AGENCIES
HE euro was mixed against other currencies in asian trade on Monday as risk appetite grew on positive Us jobs data. The euro fetched $1.2389 and 97.23 in Tokyo morning trade, against $1.2381 and 97.30 yen in new York late Friday. The dollar bought 78.50 yen against 78.59 yen. in early trade Monday, the euro briefly reached $1.2442, its highest level in a month, boosted by a jump in risk sentiment from better-than-expected Us jobs data Friday, dealers said. The department of Labor said the world’s biggest economy created 163,000 jobs in July, well above the market forecast of 100,000 jobs, sending Wall street surging. Mansoor Mohi-uddin, UBs head of forex strategy, said the euro could climb past the $1.25 level, but the rise would be unsustainable given the likelihood of fresh policy action by
arranges $35m Islamic Structured Trade Finance facility for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) KARACHI standard Chartered arranged a one year Usd 35 million islamic structured Trade Finance facility for Pakistan international airlines (Pia). The Bank was the sole arranger and structuring Bank for this transaction. The facility is structured as an offshore transaction under an islamic mode which uses an innovative services ijara concept based on purchase and distribution of airline seats. The Bank’s deep understanding of offshore markets, product knowledge, combined with strong liquidity and a good capital base, made it a perfect choice for leading the transaction. The Usd facility will allow Pia to benefit from low interest rates in the international markets. The facility will be utilised by the airline for general
CompANy Rafhan MaizeXD Atlas Battery Ltd. Exide (PAK) XD Island Textile Colgate Palmolive
the European Central Bank (ECB). “We maintain our longer term $1.1500 target as ECB balance sheet expansion will cyclically weaken the currency again — even if structural concerns about the eurozone breaking up are reduced,” Mohiuddin said. Credit suisse analyst Hiromichi shirakawa said the upbeat Us data made it less clear that the Us Federal Reserve would usher in further monetary easing at a policy meeting on september 13. “We see a rising possibility that the Federal Reserve holds off its decision on additional action until december or early next year,” he said in a note.
Structuring in flight NEWdESK
Major Gainers
corporate purposes. Hogan Lovells and Haidermota & Co acted as legal counsel to standard Chartered while Pia was represented by Mandviwalla & Zafar. The signing of the facility agreements recently took place in dubai where Pia was represented by Chief Financial Officer Mr. nayyar Hayat, and Funds Management General Manager Mr. shahid Munir. Commenting on the transaction, standard Chartered Pakistan Chief Executive Mohsin nathani said, “standard Chartered, consistent with our brand promise of being ‘Here for good’, is committed to the Pakistan market. We are glad to have successfully arranged this unique facility for Pia and are pleased to be deepening our relationship further. By providing this financing solution we aim to help them meet their long term objectives.
UniLever Pak Siemens Pakistan Mithchells Fruit Wyeth Pak Limited ZIL Limited
AGENCIES
Oil prices were down in asia Monday with traders taking profits from a rally last week as they awaited the release of Chinese trade data later in the week, analysts said. new York’s main contract, West Texas intermediate (WTi) light sweet crude for delivery in september, fell 12 cents to $91.28 a barrel and Brent north sea crude for september delivery shed 34 cents to $108.60. Crude prices were weaker “after rallying on a stronger-than-expected Us jobs report, while the market awaited Chinese trade data due later this week for trading cues,” Phillip Futures said in a report. a crude rally on Friday saw prices on the WTi jumping more than four dollars to
Emirates Airline had the pleasure of hosting an Arabic themed lftar dinner in honour of the media representatives in Karachi at these moments Emirates Airline Vice President Pakistan Mr. Khalid Bardan with media guests.
LoW 3700.00 239.50 214.93 199.90 1262.55
CLoSE CHANgE 3700.00 76.00 249.86 10.40 214.93 10.23 213.80 10.18 1337.50 8.51
TUrNovEr 20 112,700 12,700 700 200
8444.80 811.00 364.95 988.00 98.00
8455.00 800.00 350.15 975.00 96.00
8400.00 796.00 350.15 940.00 93.10
8400.00 796.00 350.15 975.00 93.24
-44.80 -15.00 -14.80 -13.00 -4.76
180 250 100 100 900
12.00 15.24 6.24 116.44 11.24
10.35 14.61 5.70 113.35 10.50
11.02 14.71 5.82 113.83 11.24
1.02 -0.42 -0.30 -2.19 1.00
5,233,000 3,214,500 2,972,000 2,862,500 2,419,500
Volume Leaders Aisha Steel Mills Jah.Sidd. Co. Azgard Nine Fauji Fertilizer Quice Food
10.00 15.13 6.12 116.02 10.24
Interbank Rates
Bulls, bears slug it out in Islamabad ISLAMABAD APP
The islamabad stock Exchange witnessed a bullish trend on Monday as the isE-10 index was up by 8.26 points to close at 2929.36. a total of 21,000 shares were traded, which were down by 5,200 shares as compared to previous day’s trading of 26,200 shares. Out of 119 companies, share prices of 46 companies recorded increase and those of 73 registered decrease. no company remained stable. The share price of Unilever Pakistan increased by Rs. 144.80, while that of Engro Corporation decreased by Rs. 3.30. Byco Petroleum, Lotte Pakistan PTa and Bank of Punjab remained the top trading companies with 10,000, 10,000 and 5,000 shares respectively.
SBP says relax More relaxations for exporters under export Finance Scheme KARACHI
pass $91 a barrel, while Brent rose more than three dollars to within striking distance of $109. The ebullient show was largely due to official data released Friday showing the economy of the Us — the world’s largest oil consumer — creating 163,000 jobs in July, beating forecasts for a gain of 100,000, analysts said. On traders’ watchlist for this week is the release of a slew of economic data from China which will provide an update on the economic health of the world’s largest energy consumer and its corresponding energy demand. China’s June trade data released last month showed demand for imports falling more sharply than expected, leading to a widening of the trade surplus and stoking concerns about an economic slowdown. China is set to release its July trade figures this Friday.
HigH 3700.00 251.40 214.93 213.80 1350.00
Major Losers
STAFF rEPorT
SINGAPORE
opEN 3624.00 239.46 204.70 203.62 1328.99
The state Bank of Pakistan (sBP) has allowed more relaxations to exporters under Part-ii of the Export Finance scheme (EFs), the central bank said Monday. “To further facilitate exporters under EFs Part-ii, the export proceeds realised up to august 31, 2012 shall be considered for entitlement of limit in the EE-1 statement for the year 2012-13,” said an sBP circular issued by the regulator to the banks. The relaxation, it said, was available only to the exporters having shortfall in required performance under EFs Part-ii for the monitoring year 2011-12. Further, limits sanctioned by banks under Part-ii of the scheme for FY 2011-12 to the exporters intending to avail the above facility shall continue up to October 31, 2012, to enable them to avail financing facilities under the scheme pending submission of EE-1 statements for FY 201213, the circular said. adding that to avail this relaxation such exporters should inform Refinance Unit of the respective sBP-BsC Office up to august 30, 2012 through their banks. The exporters foreseeing difficulty in meeting required exports targets in FY 2012-13, should avail realistic limits from banks in line with their potential to perform in order to avoid short performance next year, it added.
aslam gets Pearl Capital helm KARACHI: asim aslam Khan has been appointed new CEO of Pearl Capital Management in place of saad Bin naseer, who resigned from the post recently. Khan is a highly creative consumer banker with 37 years of experience with strong business background, including 17 years in banking, versatile and seasoned professional who adapts well to changing environments. With strong leadership qualities, he excels in mediating among multiple divisions of large organizations and maintains productive relationships with staff, peers, and management. STAFF rEPorT
Us dollar UK Pound Japanese Yen Euro
94.2624 146.7383 1.2020 116.5649
Dollar East BUy US Dollar Euro Great Britain Pound Japanese Yen Canadian Dollar Hong Kong Dollar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal Australian Dollar
SELL
94.00 115.99 145.76 1.1906 93.20 11.96 25.53 25.03 98.46
94.80 117.05 147.05 1.2010 94.53 12.13 25.73 25.18 100.78
CORPORATE CORNER UBL and SLiC formally launch joint insurance product KARACHI: United Bank Limited (UBL) recently became the first bank in Pakistan to be signed up by State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) to sell their insurance products under Bancassurance. SLIC is the leading insurance company of Pakistan with the highest market share and the largest network of outlets. GBA Services were signed on to provide the technical support including state of the art online POS System for instant coverage to the customer. After the recent, signing ceremony, the product was formally launched on 2nd August, 2012 at the UBL Signature Lounge, Clifton, Karachi. PrESS rELEASE
Teradata revenue increases 18 percent in constant currency KARACHI: Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC), reported revenue of USD 665 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, an increase of 14 percent from USD 581 million in the second quarter of 2011. Currency translation reduced the second quarter revenue comparison by 4 percentage points. PrESS rELEASE
Wateen Telecom completes deployment of Wi-Fi Hotspots LAHORE: Wateen Telecom, Pakistan’s leading converged communication service provider has completed deployment of Wi-Fi Hotspots at Government of Punjab educational institutions. These hotspots will enable students at government institutions across Punjab to gain vital access to the numerous educational resources on the internet. PrESS rELEASE
Chairman NAdrA urges political parties to mobilise citizens for CNiC ISLAMABAD: NADRA Chairman Tariq Malik has written letters to leaders of all political parties requesting their assistance in mobilizing Pakistani citizens to obtain their computerized national identity cards (CNlCs), which is also a pre-requisite for registration as voters; this was stated in statement issued here today. PrESS rELEASE
MCB Bank Limited’s Mr. Muhtashim Ashai is presenting a cheque of rs 5 million to Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation’s (SIUT) dr. zafar Hussain
tuesday, 7 august, 2012