PRO 09-08-2012_Layout 1 8/8/2012 11:01 PM Page 1
Thursday, 9 August, 2012
Bulls
License to bill OGRA directed to decide issuance of 65 CNG stations’ licenses
on parade left,
ISLAMABAD
right and center KARACHI/LAHORE/ISLAMABAD
T
STAFF REPORT/AGENCIES
HE bulls kept dominating Karachi stocks market on Wednesday with benchmark, KSE 100-share index gaining 71.90 points. The day saw the index closing up at 14, 744.14 points against 14, 672.24 points of Tuesday. Pakistan Stocks closed bullish amid institutional interest in blue chip stocks ahead of major earning announcements amid hopes for cut in SBP policy stance due to be announced on August 10, said by Ahsan Mehanti, Director at Arif Habib Investments Limited. On Wednesday, the trading volumes at the ready-counter were recorded higher at 85.199 million shares against 44.962 million shares of the previous day. The trading value increased to Rs 2.699 trillion compared to Rs 3.747 trillion of the previous session. The intraday high and low, respectively, stood at 14, 762.00 and 14, 672.24 points. He added that the recovery in global stocks, strong earnings outlook played a catalyst role in bullish activity despite concerns for circular debt in Pakistan energy sector and power outrages for industrial sector. The free-float KSE-30 index adds 66.85 points to close at 12, 692.31 points against the previous 12, 625.46 points.
Govt urged to engineer exports ISLAMABAD APP
The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has called the government for promoting exports of high tech engineering goods as they could strengthen and widen national export base. “Measures need to be taken immediately on war footing to support and save our engineering industry”, ICCI President Yassar Sakhi Butt of said in a statement here on Wednesday. He said the Government should continue tariff rationalisation to provide level playing field to local engineering industry and to extend attractive export financing scheme and long-term financing facility to encourage additional investment. He was analysing the export performance of the engineering industry during the last four years which shows that the annual export of engineering goods were in the range of average $ 200 million. The ICCI President said that Pakistani engineering products are sold at a very low price and the buyers earn huge profits after some value addition. “Thus, it is the right time to increase country’s exports of high value addition engineering goods that would help the Government to reduce dependence on foreign countries for equipments and ultimately reduce the trade deficit which needs to be turned around towards a winwin situation”, he maintained. He said that the local engineering products have great demand in Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt, Germany, the US, Canada, Australia, Nepal, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia but the successive governments during the past two decades have failed to accord priority to this vital sector, and export of engineering and capital goods could not be developed on sustainable basis. Yassar Sakhi Butt said the Government should take urgent measures to reduce the cost of doing business and promote exports of engineering goods. He also proposed that Pakistan should also avail expertise of China and Japan for production of value added engineering goods.
The KMI 30-share was up by 158.95 points to close at 25, 643.28 points from its opening at 25, 484.33 points. The KSE all-share index closed with gain of 50.10 points to 10, 373.15 points as against10, 323.05 points.
LSE UP BY 129.11 POINTS Lahore Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed bullish trend by gaining 129.11 points as the LSE25 Index opened with 3526.99 and closed at 3656.10 points. The market’s overall situation also corresponded to an upward trend as it remained at 2.717 million shares to close against previous turnover of 907,100 shares, showing an upward move of 1.810 million shares. While, out of the total 88 active scrips, 27 moved up, 52 remained equal and 9 shed values. Fauji Fertilizer Company, Adamjee Insurance Company and Engro Foods Limited were Major Gainer of the day by recording increase in their per share value by Rs 2.81, Rs 2.60 and Rs 1.63 respectively. Thal Limited, Cherat Cement Company Limited and Kot Addu Power Company lost their per share value by Rs 1.26, Re 0.64 and Re 0.30 respectively. The Volume Leader of the day included Meple Leaf Cement Factory with 863,000 shares, Karachi Electric Supply Company with 538,500 shares and Lafarge Pakistan Cement with 250,000 shares.
APP
ISE-10 stays bullish Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE-10) here on Wednesday witnessed bullish trend as the index was up by 8.75 points to close at 2941.20 as compared to the previous day’s trading. Talking to APP, Stock Analyst M.M Hassan said that the buying in the cement and fertilizer sector led the bullish rally in the market. Such positive sentiments were created in the market owing to corporate results’ announcement, he said, adding the investors has taken a positions in the low-priced shares of cement sector rendering increase in the volume of the market. Besides, fertilizer and oil sector remained favorite in the market because its expected earning to be announced in the near future, he added. Total volume of shares traded was 78,500, which was up by 74,500 when compared it with previous day’s closing. Out of 117 companies’ shares traded, the price of 84 was increased while the price of 33 decreased. The price top gainer Unilever Pakistan was increased by Rs 148.00 while the price of top loser Millat Tractor decreased by Rs.10.84. Lafrage Pakistan Cement, Lottee Pakistan PTA and Bank of Punjab remained volume leaders with volume of 50,000, 10,000 and 9,500 shares respectively.
Not every single week!
Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has been directed to decide the issuance of licenses of 65 CNG stations fall in different categories of completion as per decision of the government. The direction was issued by members of National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources in a meeting held here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Engineer Muhammad Tariq Khattak, MNA. The committee directed the Chairman OGRA to convey the report on the issue of fake degree of the officials working in the authority. The committee unanimously recommended that the prices of fuel products should be fixed on monthly basis instead of weekly. The committee directed the Punjab Police DIG representing the IGP Punjab to extend full cooperation to the SNGPL official while taking action against the illegal connections and also directed to ensure the presence of IGP Punjab in the next meeting to come up with the report on 310 FIRS lodge against the theft of gas. The committee provided a performa relating to recruitment with the direction to fill it and return to the committee from the all allied departments of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural resources. The meeting was attended by MNAs Nawab Ali Wasan, Khurram Jehangir Wattoo, Jamshaid Ahmed Dasti, Ch. Asghar Ali Jatt, Nawab Muhammad Yusuf Talpur, Syed Anayat Ali Shah, Sheikh Aftab Ahmad Ch. Muhammad Barjees Tahir, Rana Afzal Hussain, Rana Muhammad Ishaq Khan, Ahmadan Khan Bugti, Begum Shehnaz Sheikh and Abdul Waseem.
Money supply decreases by 2.4pc
LCCI opposes weekly revision of POL prices
KARACHI
LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry here Wednesday criticised Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) decision to revise the prices of petroleum products on weekly basis and said that it would not only double the inflation figures but also create operational difficulties for the manufacturers. The LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh urged the government to review the ECC decision in the larger interests of the economy that is facing multiple challenges. The ECC must know that profit margin in the global marketplace ranges between 0.5 percent to 0.25 percent and if the prices of petroleum products keep on fluctuating in this highly competitive world, the Pakistani merchandise would not be able to maintain their due place, he said, asserting, the decision would also affect the country’s manufacturing sector as the manufacturers would not be able to calculate exact price of their goods. Irfan Sheikh said the electricity shortage is a big challenge at the moment and all the government organs should work in this direction, as the electricity outages have not only curtailed the GDP growth but also jacked up the graph of unemployment rate. The LCCI President also urged the Economic Coordination Committee to ponder on producing biodiesel in a fashion India, Philippine and Brazil are doing. So much so India is running a train between Delhi and Mumbai on biodiesel. “One hector piece of land can produce 540-680 litres of biodiesel through plants known as Jetropha that need watering only once a year,” he maintained. If a decision to plant Jetropha is taken by the government at mass level in Cholistan Desert, it would not only be saving much needed revenue but would also be providing employment opportunities to the residents of that area. APP
STAFF REPORT
The central bank figures show the money supply declining by 2.40 percent to Rs183 billion during four weeks of FY13 compared to a decline of 1.98 percent to Rs132 billion during the same period last year, said an InvestCap Research report issued Wednesday. It said though M2 growth remained in negative zone, the government borrowing from the commercial banks accelerated by 147 percent WoW (101 percent YoY) to Rs181 billion during four weeks of FY13. On the flip side, Govt. retired Rs187 billion to the SBP during the period under review compared to the retirement of Rs25 billion during the same period in FY12. The total government borrowing reached to Rs 6.9 billion compared to Rs 67 billion witnessed during the same period last year. Credit to nongovernment sector also declined to Rs 51.64 billion, (FY12: Rs 105 billion). Govt. retired borrowing of Rs 52 billion to nongovt. sector, in which retiring of Rs 52.3 billion in account of credit to private sector and borrowing Rs 745 million from public sector enterprises.
Rabi season to see urea crisis for gas scarcity KARACHI STAFF REPORT
In the recent meeting of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), chaired by the federal finance minister, the proposal of allowing the import of 0.6 million tons of urea was discussed along with reducing the per bag urea prices by Rs150 to Rs1,450 per bag. The committee, in principle, decided to allow import of 0.3 million tonnes of urea for next season, while decision of import of another 0.3 million tonnes of urea has been deferred, said an InvestCap Research report issued Wednesday. As per ongoing gas curtailment sce-
nario, four urea plants (Enven 1.3, DAWH, AGTL and Pak Arab) which are on SNGPL network with cumulative annual capacity of 2.1 million tonnes has been barely been operative this year. D u r i n g 1HCY12 the total capacity utilisation of these four urea plants stood at just 16 percent, while the deficit imposed due to this shut down was made up by huge urea imports of
891k tonnes (up 270 percentYoY) during the same period. “Considering the ongoing gas curtailment scenario, we expect this Kharif, which will last till September, will go smooth as current operational capacities of 4.0 million tonnes (facing average curtailment of 10 percent) along with urea
import will be adequate to manage supply side issues,” the report said adding. “However, the situation will deteriorate in Rabi season, which will start mid November, since it is highly probable that gas availability will further worsen during winter. The current proposed 0.6 million tonnes of urea import will improve the supply situation in Rabi season”. Even though international urea prices have slide down to $400/tonne making a high of $520/tonne during the period this year, we expect Gov’t budget of Rs25 billion for urea import subsidy this year not to be sufficient, the report said.