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Profit-taking keeps bulls from going berserk Page 03
profit.com.pk
Friday, 09 March, 2012
MFN regime to test rice exporters g
REAP to hire international consultants/lawyers g Phase out of negative list by December threatening industry KARACHI
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GHULAM ABBAS
s the cabinet has approved the negative list of trade of over 1,200 items with India, along with the phase out deadline of December 2012, the rice exporters of the country are going to hire foreign consultants/layers to avoid negative impacts of the trade liberalisation. According to sources, rice exporters who perturbed over the ministry of commerce’s move to exclude rice from the proposed negative list and phase out of the list this year, have decided to prepare a comprehensive suggestion/proposal to the government to minimise the impacts of rice imports from New Delhi in post Most Favoured Nation (MFN) regime. “Though this was the duty of the government to evaluate/examine the impacts of trade liberalisation with India after over 60 years, the exporters were doing the job by themselves to save the domestic market,” an official of Rice Exporters Association of Pak-
istan (REAP)who did not want to be named, told Profit. The reputed international layers/consultant would prepare a detailed proposal on the part of the exporters to ministry of commerce, he added. “Despite the proposal made by REAP to give enough time to examine the negative impacts of normalisation trade with the neighbouring country, the list was finalised by the ministry posting a risk over the important rice industry of the country,” he added. In reply to a query, he said the ministry should announce the safeguarding measures prior to normalisation of trade with India to remove concerns of the industry/exporters/growers of rice. REAP, earlier, has recommended the government to include all kinds of rice in the proposed negative list of trade with India, the exporters have shown their serious concerns over the recent developments of importing the commodity from the neighbouring country and phase out plan. The imports of cheaper commodity from outside the border would not only cause us loss of domestic, but also international
markets including Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asian states. It is worth mentioning here that REAP in a recent statement has claimed that traditionally the price of Indian basmati and other rice varieties used to be at least $100-300/MT higher than Pakistani rice varieties, but after the arrival of a new crop in Oct-Nov 2011; India taking advantage of its huge stocks, bumper crop and devaluation of its rupee by 15-20 per cent reduced their prices by 20-30 per cent and now they are selling $100-300/MT cheaper than Pakistani basmati and other varieties, such as Kianat (1121). Recently, the government of India has reduced MEP on basmati rice from $900-700/MT, which is far below the Pakistani basmati rice prices of $900-1,100/MT. Earlier, Indian government had lifted the ban on export of nonbasmati rice and allowed export of two million tonnes of non-basmati rice. Consequently, Pakistan has lost its brown rice market of EU of nearly 170,000 tonnes to India and is facing great difficulties for export of its basmati rice to Middle East and other countries of the world.
The prices of long grain Pakistan irri had gone down drastically, which is hitting the farmers of sindh who are demanding compensation for their losses. secondly, the free import of cheaper Indian parboiled Pusa/1121 will reach the market of Afghanistan by land route and ruin whatever little export Pakistan is doing to Afghanistan and bring all the parboiling plants imported from India to a standstill. Once basmati and 1121 sales are affected, it will indirectly hit the farmers who will not grow basmati rice in future and go for cheaper hybrid varieties threatening to close down the $2.0 billion rice export of Pakistan. If the government allows the import of Indian rice into Pakistan, then our farmer should also be given the facilities of matching with the subsidies being given to Indian farmers, so that our farmers are able to protect their livelihoods. Indian government was giving about $30 billion in subsidies to its farmers. The cost of urea and DAP was also less than 50 per cent of the Pakistani prices and Indian farmers were also getting cheaper electricity and fuel.
EU grants Rs3.52b to improve education in Sindh ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
European Union (EU) has committed Rs3.52 billion to the sindh Education sector support Programme to improve the quality and access to public education in the province. The financing agreement granting this amount to the provincial government of sindh was made public by the EU Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark and secretary of the Economic Affairs Division, Dr Waqar Masood Khan on Thursday. speaking at the occasion, EU Ambassador said EU firmly believes improved quality and access to public education is essential for the youth of Pakistan. The overall objective of EU funding to this provincial education sector support programme is to promote quality and access in primary and secondary education. It should also assist sindh in achieving the education-related Millennium Development Goals. EU’s support will furthermore, assist the government of sindh to improve its management and service delivery in the education sector. EU is providing support for a similar programme for KhyberPakhtunkhwa province. The expected results and main activities of sindh programme are approval of a coherent education sector policy and plan by the provincial government for which it will conduct a structured and inclusive sector review and dialogue with all education donors and civil society. sindh will implement a school consolidation plan with quality and access indicators and improve service delivery through more efficient teacher management, effective student-teacher ratios, reduction in teacher absenteeism, strengthened governance of the education system at school level, and improved reliability of education statistics for planning and management purposes. sindh will improve education service delivery in the province through technical cooperation focusing on strategic capacity development for policy formulation, improving sector financial management; performance based monitoring, access to quality education services, and donor coordination. The level of this grant indicates the importance EU attaches to education for the further development of Pakistan. EU support is provided in the context of the overall EU-Pakistan Development Cooperation Programme, through which EU has granted over Rs46.4 billion to Pakistan.
SBP must stay ahead of counterfeiters to protect integrity of currency, Anwar KARACHI
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STAFF REPORT
OvERNOR state Bank of Pakistan (sBP) Yaseen Anwar has said the main goal of security printing for the central bank is to prevent forgery, tampering, and counterfeiting of banknotes. “We must stay ahead of counterfeiters and protect the integrity of our currency,” he said while inaugurating the Upgraded security Inks Manufacturing Facility of sICPA (société Industrielle at Commerciale de Produits Agricoles), Pakistan here Thursday. sBP governor observed the soundness 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 relating to banknotes, from ensuring an adequate supply to protecting and maintaining confidence in the currency. Together with our partners at Pakistan security Printing Corporation (PsPC) and the law enforcement agencies, we continuously monitor the counterfeiting threats for each denomination, and make re-design decisions based on these threats,” he added. Anwar said gaining and maintaining public confidence in the currency was a key role for any central bank. “Undoubtedly, one of the major challenges facing a central bank in ensuring public confi-
dence in its currency is the rise of counterfeit banknotes,” he added. He said advanced security features involving ink play a very important role in defeating the endeavors of counterfeiters, thereby curbing circulation of fake currency. “Increasingly, as counterfeiters become more sophisticated, the central banks admit that they need to push security printing for new technologies and new substrates,” he said. “To help prevent counterfeiting, sICPA’s security ink technology plays a vital role in making our banknotes difficult to counterfeit through state-of-theart security features such as Optical variable Ink (OvI) design, infra-red ink
designs, Uv fluorescent ink, and sICPA TALK ink images,” he said. He observed it must be ensured that ink based security features stay and do not fade away early in the life of a banknote before it is taken out of circulation. “In the fast-paced environment that we live in, people need to rely instinctively on their senses of sight and touch to authenticate a banknote in a fraction of a second,” he added. Anwar said the intaglio security feature on banknotes was preferred by the general public in Pakistan because one could instinctively feel the raised surface by just touching the banknote. Another most commonly understood security feature on our banknotes of Rs500,
Rs1,000 and Rs5,000 denominations was the Optical variable Ink (OvI) with which one could immediately detect the genuineness of the banknote by tilting the note, he said. “I am sure PsPC and sICPA must be working to improve the longevity of these ink based security features, especially in light of our climatic conditions and usages by the general public, so that machine readability of these security features remains intact.” The governor said all our new design banknotes had machine readable features that were useful for processing and detection of counterfeiting through note processing machines and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).
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Security, circular debt taking toll on exploration, development of oil and gas KARACHI
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STAFF REPORT
HE search for new hydrocarbon reservoirs in the country has started to show some signs of recovery as 12 exploratory wells were drilled in 8MFY12 as against seven wells spudded in the corresponding period last year. Though encouraging, the activity levels are still far below the levels witnessed in FY05-08, said analysts at Topline Research. “Heightened security environment particularly in KPK and Balochistan along with strained liquidity position because of notorious circular debt have cautioned oil and gas explorers to remain conservative in their drilling approach,” viewed Nauman Khan.
Their focus, analysts said, continued to remain on maximising production profile of their existing fields, while minimising their risk through joint ventures. The sector drilled 19 development/appraisal wells similar to the numbers witnessed last year. “We expect Exploration and Development (E&D) activity to remain subdued in coming days on account of favourable pricing scenario and the sector’s ability to yield optimal production profile from existing reservoirs,” Khan said. During 8MFY12, he said, the sector had drilled a total of 31 E&D wells accomplishing only 41 per cent of the full year target of 76 wells, faring a little better than last year. In the same period last year, the sector accomplished only 33 per cent of its target of 80 wells,
SECP approves Internet Trading Regulations for KSE
LAHORE
ECURITIEs and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (sECP) has approved the Internet Trading Regulations for Karachi stock Exchange to ensure effective and improved monitoring of internet based trading activities offered by brokers in the local capital market. Under the regulatory framework, any member registered with sECP as broker will be eligible to apply to the stock exchange for providing internet based trading services subject to fulfillment of minimum conditions as prescribed. The implementation of these regulations will not only benefits the investors in terms of efficiency and ease of trade execution with appropriate risk management, but will also contribute positively in expanding the existing limited market outreach. The regulations comprehensively cover various aspects of internet based trading activities while effectively addressing issues unique to this segment including risks management, delays and outages in brokers’ internet based system, security and privacy of investors’ accounts. The regulations framed in line with international best practices will replace the Internet Trading Guidelines issued by the regulator earlier in the year 2005. The earlier guidelines did not adequately cater for the latest development in information technology globe witnessed over the period and needed to be replaced with the new regulations for effective enforcement and compliance by market intermediaries.
However, company has a share in additional four wells through its Jv. The country’s largest explorer, OGDCL, seems to be the hardest hit by the circular debt. The company initiated only one new exploratory block against the target of 12 wells and has spudded seven development wells against the target of 15 wells. As regards to new discoveries, this year so far has remained uneventful for the listed sector. A total of four discoveries, predominantly gas with small discovery size, so far have been announced in the year all from carryover wells of last year. The major excitement of the year has come from discovery of augment in reservoir size from Tal and Naspha block, with PPL and POL standing as prime beneficiaries.
Khartoum governor to soon visit Pakistan
ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
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while ended up completing only 60 per cent of the target in the full year. Bifurcation of the numbers further reveal that activity is slanted towards development wells with 19 development well drilled versus the full year target of 45 wells. On exploratory front, 12 wells have been spudded as against target of 31 wells in FY12. Amongst the listed companies, POL is in the process of drilling 2 exploratory wells however, it has not drilled any development well so far in the year. Company’s Dhulian deep-01 is in the testing phase and any positive news flow can positively affect the company’s profitability going forward. PPL, on the other end of the spectrum has not initiated any new exploratory well and has drilled only one development well in its own operating lease.
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STAFF REPORT
OvERNOR Khartoum Abdelrahman Ahmed Elkhedir will visit Pakistan soon to further strengthen bilateral economic relations between the two brotherly countries. The governor was talking to a six member Lahore Chamber of Commerce (LCCI) delegation, headed by LCCI senior vice President Kashif Younis Meher, at a breakfast meeting in Khartoum. sudan Ambassador in Pakistan Alshafie Ahmed Mohammad was also present at the meeting. Abdelrahman Ahmed Elkhedir said sudan government attaches great importance to its relations with brotherly country Pakistan and would continue to explore new avenues for cooperation between the two sides. He said LCCI has taken a right decision to send a delegation to sudan, as despite have a huge potential in a number of areas both the sides have very little bilateral trade. The governor agreed with LCCI senior vice President’s proposal regarding early formation of a working group,
comprising economic experts from the two sides to identify and remove the hurdles being faced by the business community in Pakistan and sudan. speaking on the occasion, head of the delegation and LCCI senior vice President Kashif Younis Meher said LCCI was advocating the idea of Common Muslim Market and sudan should extend maximum support so that the idea can be materialised in coming years. “since, Pakistan and sudan are member countries of OIC, so it gives us more encouragement to establish close trade and economic relations. Moreover, we take sudan as a key player to venture into Africa which offers great opportunities of trade. Considering the business environment here in sudan, particularly in farming industry, fishing, mineral resources, we will surely like to evaluate the potential for Pakistani businessmen who are related to these sectors.” Kashif Younis Meher said that Pakistan and sudan need to enhance the two way trade volume as it stands considerably below to the trade potential. The bilateral trade analysis of the last three years calls for greater efforts to be made to
initially get over the $100 million mark. “We need to identify the bottlenecks which are not letting us take benefits from each other’s strong areas. I believe, our initiative of taking this businessmen delegation to sudan will go a long way in improving the current level of bilateral trade.” Pakistan’s major exports to sudan include salt, sulphur, earth, stone, plaster, lime and cement, machinery, pharmaceutical products, articles of textile, cereals, articles of iron or steel, manmade staple fibres, paper and paperboard, etc. Whereas, Pakistan’s main imports from sudan are cotton, raw hides and skins, leather, iron and steel etc. If some preference is given to Pakistani exporters, they can definitely take the lead in exporting various consumer goods to sudan which can further be marketed to its bordering countries. LCCI delegation also had a meeting with sudanese Commerce Minister Ali Eljelani in the afternoon and discussed a number of trade related proposals. The two sides also reviewed possibilities of joint ventures between the two countries.
Zorlu plans another 200 MW wind power in Pakistan ISLAMABAD AMER SIAL
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HILE informing that its under-construction 56 MW wind power project in Jhimpir coastal area of sindh will commence operations from December this year, the Zorlu Energy Group of Turkey has shown interest for investment in another 200 MW wind power project. A three member delegation of the company led by Ibrahim sinnon Ak called on the Minister for Water and Power syed Naveed Qamar and informed that financial close for the 56 MW project was achieved and all other requirements were complete and con-
struction was going on at the site. An official source said the Turkish investors informed that they have decided to make further investment to set up another wind project of 200 MW. They said they were already started work on the new project. They asked for the provision of land in the wind corridor in coastal area of sindh for their 200 MW wind project. Turkish firm has already awarded contract to Danish wind turbine manufacturer vestas for 28 MW turbines for its wind power project. Delivery of the wind turbines is scheduled to start in the first half of this year and the wind power project is expected to be
completed by the end of the current year. The first phase of the wind power project comprising 6 MW has been in operation since 2009. Zorlu’s 56 MW wind power plant will have an estimated annual production of 159,000 MWh per year, which corresponds to the residential electricity consumption of approximately 350,000 persons in Pakistan. The wind farm will save the environment from more than 90,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions on an annual basis. Appreciating the Turkish investment in the alternative energy projects, the minister said that it will attract more investment in the renewable energy sector. He said that the government
has planned to generate 1500 MW on fast track basis from wind energy and upfront tariff has been announced in this regard to facilitate the investors. The minister assured the delegation that land for 200 MW wind project will be provided to the company on lease at the earliest and directed the AEDB to take up the matter with sindh for early allotment. He said the government will facilitate the Zorlu Energy Group and other Turkish investors and asked them to make more investment in this sector. He said Pakistan is facing energy crisis and the government is taking all possible steps to overcome the energy shortages.
Partial gas supply restored to fertiliser plant LAHORE: Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited announced on Thursday that sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (sNGPL) had started partial gas supply to the urea fertiliser plant of the company’s 100 per cent owned subsidiary, DH Fertilisers Limited. Gas started to reach the plant on Tuesday and start-up activities were initiated accordingly. The production is expected to start by Friday. Dawood Hercules also informed the stock exchanges of this development through a notice, as required by the material information disclosure provisions of the listing rules. STAFF REPORTER
Dollar reserves slide to $16.336bn KARACHI: The country’s foreign exchange reserves further shrank by $88 million or 0.5 per cent during the week that ended on March 2, the central bank reported on Thursday. During the week in review, the country’s dollar holding depleted to $16.336 million from $16.424 billion of the previous week ending on February 24. The state Bank held $11.897 billion, down $165 million or 1.3 per cent compared to $12.062 billion that the bank possessed in the preceding week. The commercial banks, however, did an upset by m intaining dollar reserves worth $4.438 billion. This depicts an increase of 1.7 per cent or $76 million when compared with $4.362 billion that the banks held last week. Country’s dollar reserves, after hitting the record $18.31 billion mark in July 2011, are constantly contracting, due to what the central bank believes repayment of foreign loans. The state Bank repaid at least $399 million to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the end of last month (February) with economic managers reportedly having said the repayment of $1.1 billion IMF repayments by June 2012 were already budgeted, thus would have no impact on the fragile economy. STAFF REPORTER
International Conference Pak Finance 2012 LAHORE: To promote the economic thought of Iqbal and to find practical possibilities of its implementation, International Conference Pak Finance 2012 will be held with academic collaboration of Iqbal Academy Pakistan. In line with the announcement of prime minister of Pakistan to declare 2012 as Iqbal Year, this is the Iqbal Academy Pakistan’s first major event to be held in Lahore on March 28-29, 2012. Pak Finance 2012 is being organised by eTechnologies and Management (eTeaM), Lahore. Addressing to a joint press conference here at Lahore Press Club, Head of Academic Iqbal Academy Tahir Hameed Tanoli and CEO eTeaM Wahid Noor Malik said the event would have a conference titled ‘Islamic Finance: Breaking Chains of Exploitation and an Islamic Financial Products Expo’. They said the event aims to bring various stakeholders of Islamic finance under one roof and provide a common platform where international experts, academics, research scholars, policy makers, regulators, Islamic finance and takaful providers, representatives of trade bodies and business associations, government functionaries and end users can exchange their views and share ideas for growth and development of the fast growing sector of Islamic Finance. STAFF REPORTER
Sharjah Export Display Centre Project to be prioritised KARACHI: The sharjah Export Display Centre Project, for which land was made available by the UAE government, can become a viable venue to project Pakistani exports in UAE and Gulf region, if it is taken up by the business community. This was agreed upon by all participants in a meeting held between Jamil Ahmed Khan, Ambassador of Pakistan to UAE and leading members of the business community at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) head office in Karachi. He urged all businessmen to contemplate the possibility of opening representative offices in UAE, in order to further expand their exports. He also urged the business community to participate actively in the March 23rd celebrations being hosted by Pakistan’s embassy in UAE, stating that such events provided a great opportunity to businessmen to network with their foreign counterparts. While making a detailed presentation on the trade and investment opportunities for Pakistani businesses in the UAE, he identified the following sectors carrying great potential for our businessmen: oil and gas, agricultural products, education 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 with immediate effect, the industry sources told Profit. They said the federal government has accepted the resignation of Raza whose immediate sacking had been ordered by the supreme Court of Pakistan in its January 14th decree. The apex court’s order came in view of the banker’s appointment as President NBP for the fifth consecutive time. Also, the bank confirmed the reports by sharing a materilal infomration with its shareholders at the country’s three stock exchanges in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore on Wednesday. “The federal government has accepted the resignation of Mr s Ali Raza,” said bank’s secretary sM Ali Zamin, in a notice to the Karachi stock Exchange here. Raza, a senior banker, stepped down as a chairman Board of Directors of the bank with immediate effect, the secretary said. STAFF REPORTER
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Apprehensions over narrow range of contributors to KSE 100 index KARACHI
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ISMAIL DILAWAR
HE Karachi stocks market whereas is peaking to new highs in terms of trading volumes on the back of investors’ hope for the materialisation of government’s assurances regarding the implementation of a reformed CGT regime from April 1, the market observers feel uncomfortable with the rallying trades that, they believe, should have been wide-board and not concentrated in nature. Thursday saw the traded shares at KsE’s ready-counter hitting a new high of 358 million shares up by 12 per cent or 39 million shares compared to 318 million of the previous day. The benchmark KsE100-share index also rallying well above
13,000 points gaining 26 points on Thursday to close at 13,271.39 points. But, this rally on account of trades and index, the analysts say, was not reflective of the situation on ground. “Too many stocks adding too few points to the index,” said Khurram schehzad, head of research at InvestCap. The index is mainly driven by traditional heavyweights from selected sectors like oil and gas, FMCG, fertiliser and banks. These scrips the analysts said had added the most to the benchmark index since 12th of January. The market has so far yielded a solid gain of 17 per cent YTD12. “Glancing closely through the broader trends reveals that there still has been a concentrated activity (in terms of volumes) towards the lower-tier scrips compared to a
wide-board rally that should have been the case,” schehzad viewed. Cumulatively, the analyst said, the top-10 most influencing stocks added a whopping 1,257 points to the index where the index, in total, gained 1,897 points since the commencement of the year 2012. This translated into a 2/3rd or 66 per cent contribution to the current market rally while the rest was shared by the remaining 90 scrips constituting the benchmark. On the contrary, volumes contribution from the very set of stocks has been only 15 per cent by far, with the National Bank and Fauji Fertilizer Company being on top. “85 per cent of the market activity at the bourse has been generated through either 2nd or 3rd-tier stocks,” said schehzad. “Take example of yesterday’s market activity when KsE100 was
down primarily due to selling observed in the Oil and Gas sector with volumes in the same being at minuscule levels while the total market volumes easily crossed 300mn mark!,” he added. Also Thursday’s jump on the volumes front the analysts attributed to the second and third tier scrips. “The stocks closed higher amid higher trades post major announcements at KsE led by second and third tier stocks on strong valuations,” said Ashen Mehanti, director at Arif Habib securities. The market observers link the prevailing record breaking spirit at the Karachi bourse to the government’s future action towards its commitment on the CGT-related reforms saying a long stretch from April 01 might have serious consequences on both market volumes as well as the returns.
Profit-taking keeps bulls from going berserk KARACHI STAFF REPORT
Amid higher trading volumes the Karachi stocks market gained 26.44 points on Thursday as profit-taking restrained the benchmark index to set a new record. “The KsE-100 yet again tried to climb above the new high, however, could not close above the high for the current uptrend,” viewed Abdul Azeem of InvestCap. The profit-taking at strength forced the market to retreat, as it closed with only 26 points positive, said the analyst. The KsE 100-share index closed at 13,271.39 points against 13,244.95 points of Wednesday. The intraday high and low for the index was recorded at 13,364.66 points and 13,244.95 points.
“The stocks closed higher amid higher trades post major announcements at KsE led by second and third tier stocks on strong valuations,” said Ashen Mehanti of Arif Habib securities. The total traded shares at the ready-counter were recorded peaking to 358.177 million shares compared to 318.609 million shares of a last session. 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 the bulls,” said analyst Azeem. The market capital rose slightly to Rs3.448 trillion against Rs3.440 trillion. In total 391 scrips were traded of which 227 gained, 87 lost while 77 remained unchanged. The turnover in future contracts lowered and closed at 12.950 million shares as against 15.374
million of last day. Fauji Cement maintained the top slot in terms of volumes with its traded shares accounting for 44.363 million each priced at Rs5.02 in the opening and Rs5.49 in the closing. According to Mehanti, the factors that played as catalyst on Thursday include a renewed foreign interest, recovery in global stocks and commodities after developments in Greece crucial debt swap, retail and institutional support ahead of reformed CGT regime implementation, resumption of gas supplies in fertilizer sector and easing circular debt concerns in power sector. This, he said, was despite the investors’ concerns for rising current account deficit on higher global commodities.
Major Gainers Company
Open
High
Low
Close
Change
Turnover
Rafhan Maize Product UniLever Pak Ltd. Bata (Pak) Ltd. Millat TractorsSPOT Pak.Int.Con. SD
2720.00 5650.00 627.01 493.79 138.26
2854.00 5700.00 650.00 512.50 145.17
2721.00 5500.00 630.00 493.00 145.17
2846.83 5699.99 641.00 500.06 145.17
126.83 31 49.99 1,696 13.99 55 6.27 48,828 6.91 33,734
Major Losers Nestle PakistanXD Siemens Pakistan Colgate Palmolive Attock PetroleumXD Shell Pakistan
4209.37 790.00 894.32 452.66 201.39
4202.00 775.00 930.00 452.90 199.30
4133.00 775.00 855.00 448.00 195.25
4169.57 775.00 880.00 448.39 197.42
5.54 3.40 7.99 3.01 5.74
5.15 2.83 7.35 2.06 4.80
5.49 3.36 7.85 3.01 5.74
-39.80 43 -15.00 70 -14.32 336 -4.27 11,129 -3.97 66,087
Volume Leaders Fauji Cement Lafarge Pakistan Azgard Nine Dewan Cement JS Bank Ltd
5.02 2.79 7.28 2.01 4.74
0.47 44,363,204 0.57 33,360,303 0.57 18,486,074 1.00 15,392,698 1.00 15,299,824
Interbank Rates US Dollar UK Pound Japanese Yen Euro
90.7577 143.6423 1.1130 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
CORPORATE CORNER Warid engages in career counseling at IBA Career Fair
rate social Responsibility programme in Pakistan with a visit to the Deaf Reach school and Training Centre in Karachi. The school, which is part of the Family Educational services Foundation (FEsF), seeks to empower hearing impaired children, teenagers and young adults in urban and rural areas by teaching them vocational skills. The courses are also designed to help students become self-sufficient and meet their specific academic and vocational needs. PRESS RELEASE
Nationwide Financial Literacy Programme’s press briefing at SBP
KARACHI: Aimed at transforming futures by providing lucrative learning and growth opportunities, Warid Telecom reached out to students at IBA Career Fair 2012. The company’s recruitment and staffing team along with senior team member from Organisation Development and Training, provided career counseling, coaching and career advice to the students. PRESS RELEASE
Nominations open for 2012 WISE prize for education DOHA: The search has begun for an individual – or group – to become the next Laureate of the WIsE Prize for education. This is the first global prize to recognize world-class contributors to education at a similar 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 sector whose achievements has had a significant and lasting impact upon education at any level. The laureate receives $500,000 and a gold medal. PRESS RELEASE
Etihad Airways brings joy to deaf children LAHORE: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has launched its 2012 Corpo-
KARACHI: state Bank of Pakistan (sBP) has launched the Nationwide Financial Literacy Programme (NFLP) with an endowment from Asian Development Bank The programme is chaired by a committee with representatives from Pakistan Banks Association (PBA), Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF). Its purpose is to impart knowledge and understanding of basic financial concepts, products and services to low-income Pakistanis in order to enable better economic decisions. For the current pilot phase which Bearing Point is implementing, the program aims to reach out to the common people through mass media massaging over radio and television particularly in the regional channels. It will also impart class room training on financial education to 30,000 beneficiaries, and another 15,000 people through street theatres. PRESS RELEASE
Dubai Islamic Bank earns Rs316 million in 2011 KARACHI: Board of Directors of Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited (DIBPL) recently held a meeting to approve its financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2011. DIBPL is a subsidiary of Dubai Islamic Bank UAE, the world’s first Islamic Bank. The year 2011 marked numerous achievements for DIBPL. On the financial side, the Bank has reported 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 deposits to Rs38.49 billion in 2011. On the asset side, DIBPL’s asset base rose by 20.8 per cent in contrast to 2010 increasing the asset base to Rs48.1 billion in 2011. The Bank’s investments grew substantially by 117.6 per cent over the year, taking total investments to Rs12.93 billion. PRESS RELEASE
World’s Longest Graffiti scroll themed on “Colors of Pakistan”. Using spray paint only, HBL employees created a colourful scroll of 1,924 metres beating a previous record of 1,676 metres. “The final measurement is 1,924 metres” announced Tarika vara, the adjudicator from Guinness as HBL employees broke into chants of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. PRESS RELEASE
Accommodation given to Diamer Basha Dam affectees
BP signs mandate with Chevron Pakistan
LAHORE: In line with the decision taken by the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), the first installment to construct temporary housing facility has been handed over to all families whose lands had been acquired in Thor valley for construction of Diamer Basha Dam Project (DBDP). WAPDA General Manager (Land Acquisition and Resettlement) Dr Raheal Ahmad siddiqui and General Manager (DBDP) shoukat Hussain Bhatti delivered the cheques to the families in Thor valley of Diamer district in Gilgit Baltistan. In a major departure from existing practice in land acquisition and resettlement, WAPDA in its meeting held on February 21, decided to provide temporary housing facilities to all affected families in Thor valley. PRESS RELEASE
KARACHI: standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited has been awarded cash management mandate by Chevron Pakistan Limited. This was first ever such mandate awarded by Chevron to standard Chartered globally. The solution entails automation of Chevron Pakistan Limited’s payments processing through Host2Host integration of Chevron’s Global ERP (sAP) with standard Chartered’s straight2Bank access and streamlining of collections services through the Bank’s countrywide branch network. This arrangement provides a dynamic platform with state of the art solutions for Chevron Pakistan Limited by offering operational efficiency, reduced risk, lowered cost and improved transparency. PRESS RELEASE
Babyshop organises Toy Fest LAHORE: Babyshop recently conducted a Toy Fest event at their newly opened location at Mall One, on Main Boulevard, Gulberg. This event was a fun-filled activity for children, babies and mommies with an exciting fashion show as the highlight of the event. Children, dressed up in costumes, ranging from princesses to angels to the devil, walked on the ramp with their mommies and paraded their stunning costumes in front of the celebrity judges. PRESS RELEASE
HBL staff creates Guinness world records LAHORE: Employees of HBL created two Guinness world records at their annual sales conference. The records created at the sharjah Cricket stadium, UAE – include the World’s Longest Handshake Chain of 274 people beating the previous record of 188, and the
LAHORE: Ehsan Talat – Brand Manager, Neste Everyday, receiving memento from S Masood Hashmi, President MAP at the 25-year celebrations of Marketing Association of Pakistan, Lahore Chapter. Also seen here is Mr Khaliq Ur Rehman–Vice President, MAP Lahore Chapter. PRESS RELEASE