Tuesday, 27 November, 2012

Zin gas stressedIWCCI for utilising Zin gas reserves

ISLAMABAD

APP

The Islamabad Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI) on Monday stressed the need forutilizing Zin gas reserves to cater to the energy requirements of the country. “Zin gas can cater for all theenergy requirements of Pakistan for next one hundred years,” claimed President IWCCI, Farida Rashidadding that Extraction from Zin Block can end energy crisis and cease the need to import lPG, lNG ornatural gas from any country. Speaking to women entrepreneurs, she said that quantity of gas in Zin, locatedin Dera Bugti district, is almost double than that in Sui, the biggest natural gas field in Pakistan serving since1955. The reserve, if commercially exploited will help Pakistan save huge foreign exchange, bring an end togas scarcity for CNG, fertilizer and power sectors and revive economy, she said. Farida Rashid said that Zinblock is surrounded by major natural gas producing fields of Pirkoh, loti, Sui and Uch and its gas can startflowing in the system within next six months settling severe energy crisis forever. She said that Zin Block,located in Dera Bugti district, could not be explored for sixteen years. Farida Rashid urged the government toadopt an aggressive strategy on exploration and production front in the unexplored areas of Balochistan toboost supply by two billion cubic feet per day.

BERLIN

AGENCIES

Eurozone finance ministers are consider-ing a possible “haircut” for Greece in2015, a German newspaper reported onSunday, in a bid to reduce the recession-wracked country’s debt mountain.

Other eurozone countries and institu-tions like the European Central Bankcould be ready to discuss writing down apart of their Greek debt holdings to putGreece’s debt on a more sustainable foot-ing, said the Welt am Sonntag.

The issue was discussed at a secretmeeting of ministers and officials in Parison Monday, the paper said, without citingsources. Such a haircut might be used asan added incentive for Greece to carry outthe reforms required in its second aidpackage, which runs out in 2014, accord-ing to the Welt am Sonntag.

Germany has been firmly opposed totaking a loss on its holdings of Greekdebt, unwilling to ask German taxpayersto foot the bill for keeping Athens in theeurozone.

The ECB has also ruled out such amove, saying it is tantamount to financ-ing Greece directly, strictly forbidden byits founding treaties.

But the Spiegel newsweekly reportedthat the ECB, as well as the InternationalMonetary Fund, now considered a hair-cut unavoidable.

Nevertheless, Joerg Asmussen, amember of the ECB’s executive board,dismissed the plan.

“To close the financing gap, weneed a package of measures that wouldinclude, among other things, a clear re-duction of the interest rate on aid anda debt buy-back programme forGreece,” Asmussen told the Bild masscirculation daily.

“A haircut does not belong to this(package),” the German central bankersaid in comments to appear in Monday’sedition of the newspaper.

By writing off half of their Greek debtholdings, eurozone governments and in-stitutions could drive down Greece’s debtto 70 percent of output in 2020, com-pared to 144 percent, wrote Spiegel.

Eurozone ministers meet on Mondayfor their third effort to agree on unlock-ing a 31.2-billion-euro ($40.5-billion)slice of aid for Greece as it teeters on theverge of bankruptcy.

Both Welt am Sonntag and Spiegelwrote that the haircut issue would not bedecided at Monday’s talks.

According to Spiegel, Berlin is stilldesperately trying to avoid taking a hair-cut on its holdings and instead is pushingfor a reduction on the interest Greece

pays on aid from its existing bailout pro-grammes.

Asmussen said: “I very much hopethat the eurogroup can on Monday come

to a political decision that frees up thenext tranche from the aid package.”

For a compromise to be found,“everyone needs to move,” he said.

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

FEDERAl Minister for Finance, Dr.Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said thatdevelopment of Balochistanprovince was the top priority of thepresent democratic government.

The economic team of the government is de-termined to provide all possible resources fordevelopment of Balochistan.

Ministry of Finance is making every effort tofacilitate masses of Balochistan in general andfarmers of Balochistan in particular through itsdecisions to expedite flow of funds and otherbenefits to Balochistan.

Restoration of subsidy on tube wells inBalochistan is one such step while other devel-opment projects in a large number have alreadybeen approved for Balochistan.

The Federal Minister Dr. Abdul HafeezShaikh said this when two Federal Ministersfrom Balochistan Mir Changez Khan Jamali,Federal Minister for Science and Technologyand Sardar Alhaj Mohammad Gargaig called on

him here on Monday.Mir Changez Khan Jamali, Federal

Minister for Science and Technologythanked and appreciated the Finance

Minister for his special passion andefforts for development of Balochis-tan. Mir Changez Khan Jamali partic-ularly appreciated the FinanceMinister for Economic Coordination

Committee (ECC) decision regardingrestoration of subsidy on electricity

bills for agricultural tube wells inBalochistan. Mir Changez Khan Jamali

said at the occasion that this step by Fed-eral Government will go a long way for pros-

perity and uplift of farmers in Balochistan.Federal Minister for Postal Serv-ices, Sardar Mohammad Gorgaig

said at the occasion thatpeople and leadership of

Balochistan acknowl-edge the efforts of theFinance Minister,Dr.Abdul HafeezShaikh for develop-

ment of Balochistanand expect the

same to con-tinue.

ISLAMABAD

APP

Seven Asian and three Eurasian nationswill observe Economic Coopera-tion Organization (ECO)day on Wednesday.

Economic CooperationOrganization (ECO) is a re-gional intergovernmental or-ganization for the purpose ofeconomic cooperation betweenits member states on the basis oftheir common needs in the lightof the changes taking place onglobal economic scenario. Themember states of the ECO areTurkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan,Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turk-menistan and Uzbekistan.

The ECO was formally established by Iran, Turkeyand Pakistan in 1985 as the successor Organization ofRegional Cooperation for Development which re-mained in existence from 1964 to 1979. And, it becamean Organization of ten member countries encompass-ing an area of 7 million sq kilometers -inhabited by nowabout 400 million people- when other member statesjoined in the Organization on 28 November, 1992which is observed as the ECO Day.

The ECO provides a platform to discuss ways to im-prove development and promote trade, and investmentopportunities. The ECO is an ad hoc organization underthe United Nations Charter. The common objective is toestablish a single market for goods and services, much like

the European Union. ECO’s sec-retariat and cultural departmentare located in Tehran, its eco-nomic bureau is in Turkey and

its scientificbureau is situ-

ated in Pakistan.The status and

power of the ECO isgrowing. However,

the organization facesmany challenges. Most

importantly, the memberstates are lacking appropriate

infrastructure and institutions whichthe Organization is primarily seeking

to develop, to make full use of the available resources inthe region and provide sustainable development for themember nations. The Economic Cooperation Organisa-tion Trade Agreement (ECOTA) was signed on July 172003 in Islamabad ECO Trade Promotion Organization(TPO) is a new organization for trade promotion amongmember states located in Iran (2009). Under the agree-ment reached between ECO members, the common trademarket should be established by 2015.

Activities of ECO are conducted through Direc-torates under the supervision of Secretary Generaland his Deputies which considered and evolve proj-ects and programmes of mutual benefit in the fieldsof Trade and Investment,Transport and Telecommu-nications,Energy, Minerals and Environment, Agri-culture, Industry and Tourism, Human Resources &Sustainable Development and Project & Economic Re-search and Statistics.

WOULD YOU LIKE A HAIRCUT?Europe mulls Greece ‘haircut’ in 2015: report

Balochistan tops thelist for Dr ShaikhDevelopment of Balochistan is top priority: Hafeez

ECO day tOmOrrOw

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02

Tuesday, 27 November, 2012

Major Gainers

CompAny opEn HiGH Low CLoSE CHAnGE TurnovErBata (Pak) XD 1420.00 1491.00 1400.00 1491.00 71.00 850Colgate Palmolive 1250.00 1300.00 1300.00 1300.00 50.00 1,100Island Textile 750.00 787.50 715.05 787.50 37.50 400Sanofi-Aventis Pak 324.99 341.23 320.00 341.23 16.24 2,800Bhanero Tex.XD 261.61 274.69 274.69 274.69 13.08 3,500

Major LosersIndus Motor Co 271.42 275.00 260.65 261.31 -10.11 32,100Gillette Pak 114.00 108.30 108.30 108.30 -5.70 500Exide (PAK) 330.00 330.00 325.00 325.09 -4.91 1,200AL-Ghazi Tractors 224.47 223.00 220.15 221.00 -3.47 8,200IGI Insurance 118.39 118.70 114.01 115.11 -3.28 67,500

Volume Leaders

Summit Bank 3.00 3.18 2.98 3.02 0.02 29,371,000Fauji Cement 6.97 7.11 6.97 7.03 0.06 17,251,000Maple Leaf Cement 15.47 16.47 15.35 16.44 0.97 17,183,000Pervez Ahmed 3.73 4.39 3.77 3.98 0.25 12,022,000D.G.K.Cement 53.51 54.35 53.31 53.44 -0.07 10,093,500

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 96.0508UK Pound 153.0474Japanese Yen 1.1694Euro 123.7423

Dollar EastBuy SELL

US Dollar 96.60 97.10Euro 124.11 125.54Great Britain Pound 153.39 155.12Japanese Yen 1.1619 1.1750Canadian Dollar 95.98 97.57Hong Kong Dollar 12.23 12.44UAE Dirham 26.13 26.40Saudi Riyal 25.61 25.85Australian Dollar 99.64 102.22

Business

HONG KONG

AGENCIES

ASIAN markets were mixed onMonday as investors await theoutcome of a meeting later in theday aimed at finalising a bailoutdeal for Greece, and a simmering

budgetary impasse in Washington.Tokyo shares rose by 0.62 percent, Hong

Kong was flat, slipping 0.06 percent percent,while Sydney gained 0.23 percent in morningtrade. Shanghai was down 0.38 percent whileSeoul slipped 0.15 percent.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovicion Sunday offered some hope in the long-run-ning saga to reach a deal for Athens, saying thateurozone finance ministers were “very close toa solution”. The ministers were to meet laterMonday for their third effort to agree on un-locking a 31.2-billion-euro ($40.5-billion) sliceof aid for Greece as it teeters on the verge ofbankruptcy as nervous investors hope for posi-tive news. “I think that in effect we are veryclose to a solution,” Moscovici said Sunday.

“I don’t know if there will be an agreementtomorrow, I know it is possible and I want one.”

The mixed Asian trade comes after USstocks rallied Friday on signs that holiday retailsales were off to a good start, with Walmart call-ing it the “best ever” Black Friday, the tradi-tional discount sales day that kicks off theholiday shopping season.

That helped boost the Dow Jones IndustrialAverage by 1.35 percent to 13,009.68.

Investors are also looking out for news of a

compromise in Washington that will avert theso-called fiscal cliff of spending cuts and taxhikes, which will likely send the economy intorecession if it comes into effect.

Finding a new spending deal to replace thepackage, scheduled to come into effect on Jan-uary 1, has been elusive in the bitterly-dividedUS Congress. “Certainly from our perspective,we are sceptical about whether there has reallybeen any progress in discussions regarding theUS fiscal cliff,” Angus Gluskie, managing direc-tor of White Funds Management in Sydney, toldDow Jones Newswires.

On currency markets, the euro was weakerat $1.2953 and 106.67 yen from $1.2973 and106.90 yen in New York on Friday.

The euro had climbed to a seven-monthhigh above 107 yen in earlier Tokyo trade butthe unit quickly fell off its perch.

The dollar was also weaker at 82.32 yenagainst 82.40 yen in US trade.

However, the yen has been under pressurerecently on expectations the country’s centralbank will unveil a new round of monetary eas-ing next month.

On oil markets, New York’s main contract,West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for January de-livery, was down 31 cents to $87.97 a barrel inthe morning, and Brent North Sea crude alsofor January eased 23 cents to $111.15.

“Having just enjoyed an unexpectedlystrong week, global markets remain on a knifeedge with uncertainty over Greece and the UStaking centre stage again,” said Jason Hughes,head of premium client management at IG Mar-kets Singapore.

Zong’s Karoron Ka 10 offer

LAHORE: ZONG, the fastest growing network of Pakistan,has turned around life of an individual by awarding him theprize money of Rs. 10 million under its Karoron ka 10 Offer.The campaign launched recently was open for all prepaidsubscribers of ZONG and anyone spending Rs. 10 plus taxdaily on their ZONG connections for minimum 5 dayscontinuously, automatically became eligible for the luckydraw. This prize money is just one of the several rewards thatZONG is giving away to the lucky winners of this campaign. Karoron ka 10 Offer campaign was carried out for more than amonth and several prizes worth millions of rupees have beengiven away to winners selected through lucky draw.

Emirates flies into network-wide fare promotion LAHORE: Emirates, one of the world’s fastest-growingairlines, is revving up for a network sales push, inspiring anew wave of travel around the world. In the slipstream ofrecently announced half year profits of AED 2.1 billion (US$575 million), Emirates is driving forward by offeringattractive prices on Economy fares over a 10-day period. Thespecial network-wide promotion launches Friday 23rdNovember and runs to 2nd December for travel between 21stJanuary and 10th June 2013.Customers are being encouragedto plan ahead and book early to enjoy the greatest reductions.

CORPORATE CORNER

Asian markets mixedahead of Greece meeting

Sarmad Ali President APNS meets with Sardar Tanveer Ilyas KhanPresident Pak Gulf (The Centaurus).

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Qamar ZamanKaira talks to the media at PMS on the occasion of Hafta-e-Safai at PIMS.

US looks best of

2013 economic

runnersLONDON

AGENCIES

Here’s a fairly safe bet for uncertaintimes: the U.S. economy will once againshow the euro zone and Japan a cleanpair of heels next year. Forecasts for 2013that are now landing thick and fast showFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernankeis not alone in believing it could be a verygood year for America if politicians canavoid tumbling off the so-called fiscalcliff. Updated gross domestic productfigures due on Thursday are likely toshow the U.S. economy was already doingquite a bit better than first thought lastquarter. According to 60 economistspolled by Reuters, the initial estimate of2.0 percent growth at an annualised rateis likely to be revised up to 2.8 percent.That pace will flag. Even assuming apolitical compromise to dodge the fiscalcliff’s full $600 billion in governmentspending cuts and expiring tax breaks,the budget stance is likely to tightenmarkedly in early 2013, crimping growth.

SBP issues reminder

on 5-rupee banknote

as Dec 31 nears

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Mondayreminded the general public to exchangethe demonetized Rs 5 banknote from thefield offices of SBP Banking ServicesCorporation (SBP BSC) and over 10,000branches of banks throughout thecountry up to December 31st. The centralbank warned that after the abovedeadline neither the SBP/SBP BSC northe banks would exchange or pay anyvalue of such banknote to any person orinstitution. It may be recalled that Rs 5banknote had already been demonetizedby the federal government and, hence, itcannot be used as a legal tender.However, Rs 5 banknote can only beexchanged from the field offices of SBPBSC and branches of banks till the closeof banking hours on 31st December(2012), the bank said.

SINGAPORE

AGENCIES

Oil prices were down in Asian trade Monday as markets awaitedthe outcome of a eurozone finance ministers’ meeting aimed

at unlocking the next tranche of aid to debt-strappedGreece.

Investors were also concerned aboutlooming tax increases and huge spending

cuts in the United States, with analystsfearing they could lead to another

slowdown in the world’sbiggest economy.

New York’s maincontract, West

Texas Inter-

mediate (WTI) for January delivery, was down 31 cents to $87.97 a bar-rel in the morning, and Brent North Sea crude also for January eased 23cents to $111.15.

“Having just enjoyed an unexpectedly strong week, global marketsremain on a knife edge with uncertainty over Greece and the US takingcentre stage again,” said Jason Hughes, head of premium client man-agement at IG Markets Singapore.

Eurozone finance ministers were due to meet in Brussels on Mondayfor the third time in two weeks as part of efforts to decide on the nextslice of aid to Greece, which is in danger of running out of money.

Greece, at the centre of a eurozone debt crisis, has been waiting sinceJune for a loan installment of 31.2 billion euros ($40 billion), part of a130-billion-euro financial assistance package initially granted early thisyear.

By the end of next month, Athens is also due to receive two more aidpayments, worth 5.0 and 8.3 billion euros, on condition it implementsa series of unpopular austerity measures.

Talks about the “fiscal cliff” in the United States — a combination oftax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect on January 1 barring a com-

promise among US lawmakers — were also keeping investors onthe edge.

“Traders are likely to be bogged down by fiscal cliff talksagain this week. Very little has happened in the past 10 days,partly due to the

Thanksgiving break, but time is slipping away,” Hughes said. Another slowdown in the US economy will affect

crude demand as the United States is the world’s biggest oil con-suming nation.

Oil down in Asian trade

Spain to get EU bank aid Dec 15 MADRID: European authorities will transfer 35 billion euros to Spain’s state bank rescuefund on Dec. 15 in exchange for massive layoffs at Spain’s four nationalised banks, includingstate-rescued Bankia, El Pais newspaper reported on Sunday. The cash injection fromEuropean bailout funds will be disbursed to troubled Spanish banks two weeks after it is paidinto Spain’s bank restructuring fund, or FROB, the paper said. Bankia, which sought a 23.5billion euro bailout from the state in May, is expected to be forced to lay off up to 6,000people from its current 20,000 staff, while NovaGalicia Bank is seen laying off 2,000 of its5,800 workforce, said El Pais, citing European and banking sources. Bankia and NovaGaliciaBank declined to comment on the report, which also said the banks would have to close 1,000branches between the two of them. Catalunya Caixa (CX) and Banco de Valencia, the othertwo nationalised lenders, are currently being sold off, and conditions would be imposed onthe buyers, the paper said. AGENCIES

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