Thursday, 28 June, 2012

Page 02

Bulls reign supreme at KSE on Wednesday

ISLAMABAD

APP

PRIME Minister Raja PervezAshraf on Wednesday high-lighted the importance ofsound economic manage-ment, along with the contin-

uation of fiscal austerity policy toimprove economic development.

Ashraf was talking to an economicteam headed by Finance Minister AbdulHafeez Sheikh who briefed the prime

minister at the Prime Minister House onthe state of the Pakistan's economy, theperformance of key macro-economicvariables during the fiscal year 2011-12and the forecast for the new fiscal yearstarting from July 1.

The prime minister emphasized theneed to focus on completion of projects ina regionally balanced way. He directedthe economic team to make efforts to in-crease self sufficiency and increased rev-enue collection. He also said thatprovinces also needed to enhance their

revenue collection to fulfill the needs ofthe people.

The finance minister informed theprime minister that the main areas ofstrong performance included continuinggrowth in GDP in spite of an adverseglobal situation, decline of the inflationrate to 11 percent from 20 percent lastyear, an extraordinary increase in tax rev-enue which had increased to Rs 1,800 bil-lion so far, showing a growth of 23.4percent on last year’s figure.

Sheikh said that the high growth of

remittances, which would cross US$ 13billion, would be at an all time high andwould keep the economy of the countrymoving in the right direction. He addedthat exports were likely to repeat lastyear’s good performance in spite of a con-traction in international demand.

Sheikh further said that the success-ful utilization of public sector develop-ment programmes worth Rs 300 billion,completion of over 200 projects as well assubsidies for the poor including BenazirIncome Support Programme (BISP) were

some of the significant economic achieve-ments of the government.

The finance minister said that publicsector organizations continue to poseeconomic challenges along with the secu-rity situation in the country which detersinvestment. He also stressed the need forpolitical stability.

The meeting was also attended by thePlanning Commission deputy chairman,Planning Division secretary, finance sec-retary, FBR chairman and senior officialsof the Economic Affairs Division.

Mr Sheikh,we need to do more!g PM stresses fiscal austerity, revenue

collection in meeting with finance ministerg Sheikh briefs Ashraf on economy, boasts

economic successes including high exports

and remittances

USAID, Engro to support local dairy farmers

ISLAMABAD: The United States Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) and Engro Foods will enhance themilk storage network in the country by installing 60 milkchillers in remote villages throughout northern Sindh andsouthern Punjab to increase incomes of small dairy farms.The USAID-funded Entrepreneurs Project together withEngro Foods will install chillers in rural areas of the dis-tricts of Larkana, Shikarpur, Dadu, Khairpur, NausheroFeroze, Ghotki, Muzaffargarh and Layyah. According to astatement, 15 chillers were installed on Wednesday in BagiVillage, Larkana District. A ceremony held to mark this de-velopment was attended by Mariam Riaz from USAID, live-stock owners, milk collectors, and other stakeholders andbeneficiaries. Milk is often collected and stored at homesand goes to waste due to a lack of proper storage facilities.The chillers will enable villagers to preserve more milk andminimize losses, thus not only benefiting dairy farmersthrough increased incomes, but entire communities. APP

SBP allows banks to exchangeRs 500 old design note till Oct 1

KARACHI: TheState Bank of Pak-istan (SBP) has al-lowed allcommercial banks,microfinancebanks (MFBs) andfield offices of SBPBanking Services Corporation (SBP BSC) operatingthroughout the country to exchange the bigger and olderRs 500 banknotes until close of banking hours on October1, 2012. Earlier, the deadline of exchange was September30, 2012. However, September 30, 2012 is a Sunday.Therefore the federal government, through a Gazette Noti-fication issued in June 2012, has facilitated the public byallowing it to exchange the demonetized older banknotesuntil October 1, 2012. The SBP BSC will neither exchangenor be liable to pay any value of such banknotes to anyperson or bank after the revised deadline. According to acircular letter issued by SBP to presidents and chief execu-tives of all commercial and microfinance banks, branchesof banks, NBP chests and sub-chests should displayposters and banners regarding the revised deadline atpublic counters and other places where they would beclearly visible, in and outside their branches. The SBP hasalso directed all banks to issue the necessary instructionsregarding the display of poster to their respective branchesto ensure meticulous compliance of timelines. STAFF REPORT

ISLAMABAD

APP

The export of pharmaceutical products from the country during the last eleven monthsof the current financial year registered an increase of 7.52 percent.

According to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), as many as 19,556metric tonnes of pharmaceutical products worth US$ 142.03 million were exportedduring the period from July-May 2012. Furthermore, the export of pharmaceuticalproducts was recorded at 20,464 tonnes valued at US$ 132.10 million during the firsteleven months of the last financial year. During the period under review, the export ofchemical and pharmaceutical products has also posted a positive growth of 23.06percent as compared to the exports of the same period last year. From July-May 2012,the exports raised revenue worth US$ 1006.63 million, whereas the value of exportsfrom in the July-May 2011 period was US$ 817 million. In the last eleven months of thecurrent financial year, the exports of other chemicals increased by 39.47 percent ascompared to exports during the same period last year. Other chemicals worth US$ 433.99million were exported in the first eleven months of the current year as compared to chemicalsvalued at US$ 311.168 million in the same period last year.

KARACHI: Labourers sit on the roadside as they wait for work on Wednesday. Rising unemployment and inflation together have increased hunger and poverty among the most vulnerable. AFP

Pharmaceutical exports up by 23.06%

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02Thursday, 28 June, 2012

Emirates to operate Gatwick’sfirst A380 service on July 6

KARACHI: The world’s largest passenger jet air-craft will touch down at London Gatwick nextmonth as Emirates brings an Airbus A380 to theairport to mark 25 years of service. The Emirates’double decker, which carries over 500 passengers,will make history on 6th July when it becomes thefirst ever A380 service to Gatwick Airport. The A380 will operate one of Emirates’ threedaily flights to Gatwick, enabling passengers toexperience the world-renowned amenities onboard. These include the world’s first OnboardShower Spas in First Class, an Onboard Loungefor First and Business Class passengers and an in-flight entertainment system throughout the air-craft with over 1300 channels on demand.

PTCL Broadband brings ultimate

connectivity at unmatched speeds

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Com-pany Limited (PTCL) has now enabled its Broadbandcustomers to upgrade from 2Mbps to 4Mbps connec-tion at additional charge of Rs.500 only. As Pakistan’sfastest and most affordable Broadband service, PTCL’sBroadband Pakistan offers seamless Internet experi-ence, uninterrupted streaming and fastest download-ing speeds. It provides access to rich high-definitionmultimedia resources over the Internet enabling cus-tomers to download latest movies, TV shows andmusic files. PTCL offers a variety of Broadband Pack-ages for its customers tailored for every segment of so-ciety. The 1Mb connection costs Rs.1250; 2Mb costsRs.1499; 4Mb is priced at Rs.1999; 6Mb at Rs.4999;8Mb for Rs.6999 and the mammoth 10Mb for onlyRs.9999 — making PTCL the fastest and yet the mostaffordable Broadband service available in Pakistan.“PTCL is aiming to bridge the digital divide by bring-ing the most affordable telecommunication servicesacross the country,” said PTCL Senior Executive VicePresident Commercial, Naveed Saeed. “BroadbandPakistan is revolutionizing the way Pakistan connects,

works and plays.” “Our 4Mbps connection offers dou-ble the speed and connectivity at very nominalcharges,” said PTCL Executive Vice President Wire-line Business, Asif Inam. “No other company canmatch this quality and price.”

UBL Funds announcesInterim Payout from Funds

KARACHI: UBL Fund Managers announced an in-terim payout for the period-ended June 21, 2012from its open-end investment schemes. The Company announced a payout of Rs.1.05 perunits of par value RS. 100 from its money marketscheme, UBL Liquidity Plus Fund (ULPF) which gavean year to date return of 11.36% p.a. From UBL Government Securities Fund (UGSF), theCompany announced a payout of RS. 1.05 per unit ofpar value RS. 100. This scheme has given a year todate return of 12.15% p.a. While from UBL SavingsIncome Fund (USIF), UBL Funds announced a pay-out of RS. 1.05 per unit of par value of RS. 100. Thisscheme has given a year to date return of 12.09% p.a.On the Islamic side a payout of RS. 1.00 per unit ofpar value RS. 100 has been announced from UBL Is-lamic Savings Fund (UISF) This is a Shariah-compli-ant scheme that aims to offer competitive returnswith no holding period requirement. The scheme hasgiven a year to date return of 11.36% p.a.

Plan International launches‘girl power programme’

ISLAMABAD: Plan International, Pakistan hasbeen implementing a programme titled “Girl PowerProgramme” through which over 9,000 girls andyoung women will be provided with post primary ed-ucation facilities at their door step free of cost andover 10,000 women and 40,000 children will be pro-vided with protection services through help lines.

This was told by Rashid Javed, Country Director PlanInternational Pakistan during the launching cere-mony of the programme here in Islamabad on June25. The Ambassador of NetherlandsMr. HugoGajusScheltema was the chief guest at the occasion.The Girl Power Programme (Pakistan) is funded bythe Dutch Government and aims at strengthening thecivil society to ensure the right of girls and youngwomen to full and equal participation in the social,economic and political development of society.

Warsak Dam proves its worth

LAHORE: How beneficial water sector projectshave been for the country can be assessed from thefact that Warsak Dam, constructed at a cost of US$109.35 million, has so far provided benefits worthUS$ 5.8 billion. The canal system of Warsak DamProject is irrigating some 119,000 acres of land andhas thus contributed US$ 2.3 billion to the nationaleconomy since its commissioning. Similarly, WarsakHydel Power Station has so far generated about 40billion units of electricity, earning revenue worthUS$ 3.5 billion. Warsak Dam is located on KabulRiver about 30 km north-west of Peshawar. It is amass concrete gravity dam with a height of 250 feetand length 460 feet. The project was constructed in1960 under the Colombo Plan and was financed bythe Canadian government.

Dollar EastSELLING BUYING BUYINGTT & OD TT CLEAN OD/T.CHQ

USA 94.30 94.10 93.90UK 147.39 147.07 146.74EURO 117.85 117.60 117.35CANADA 92.05 91.85 91.61SWITZERLAND 98.13 97.92 97.67AUSTRALIA 94.87 94.67 94.42SWEDEN 13.34 13.32 13.28 JAPAN 1.1869 1.1844 1.1813 NORWAY 15.68 15.65 15.61 SINGAPORE 73.76 73.60 73.41 DENMARK 15.85 15.82 15.78 SAUDI ARABIA 25.15 25.09 25.03 HONG KONG 12.15 12.13 12.10 KUWAIT 336.26 335.54 334.66MALAYSIA 29.55 29.49 29.41 NEWZEALAND 74.50 74.34 74.14 QATAR 25.90 25.84 25.78 U.A.E. 25.67 25.62 25.55 KR WON 0.0815 0.0813 0.0811THAILAND 2.958 2.951 2.943

Business

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

BULLS dominated the Karachistock market on Tuesday as theKSE 100-share index gained143.08 points. The day saw theindex closing at a 1.05 percent

increase at 13,799.12 points against 13,656.04 points on Tuesday. Pakistani stocksclosed higher on investor speculations aheadof the year-end closing, said, at Arif Habib In-vestments Limited Director Ahsan Mehanti.

On Wednesday, the trading volumes atthe ready-counter were recorded higher at94.364 million shares against 57.989 millionshares the previous day. The trading valueincreased to Rs 2.815 billion compared to Rs2.005 billion in the previous session. The in-traday high and low stood at 13,825.30 and13,625.07 points respectively. Market capi-talisation increased to Rs 3.518 trillion fromRs 3.484 trillion a day earlier. Of the total365 traded scrips, 164 gained, 123 lost and78 finished unchanged.

The free-float KSE-30 index also gained154.10 points to close at 11, 933.77 pointsagainst the previous 11, 779.67 points. BankIslami Pakistan was the day’s volume leader,counting its traded shares at 10.241 millionwith the opening and closing rates standingat Rs 9.22 and Rs 9.35 respectively, followedby Bank Al-Falah, P.T.C.L.A, Azgard Nine andJahangir Siddiqui Company with turnovers of6.838 million, 6.767 million, 6.665 millionand 5.573 million shares respectively. Accord-ing to analysts, institutional support in blue-chip stocks across the board played a catalyticrole in creating bullish sentiments despiteconcerns about the security situation in thecity and uncertainty in global stocks and com-modities due to the prevailing euro-zone debtcrises. On the futures market, the turnoverfell to 18.038 million against 21.391 millionshares on Tuesday. Rafhan Maize XD andNestle Pakistan Limited, up by Rs 117.33 andRs 66.71, led the price gainers while,UniLever Food and UniLever Pakistan Lim-ited XD, down by Rs 75.00 and Rs 51.75 re-spectively, led the price losers.

Bulls reign supreme at KSE on Wednesday

Big banks craft

‘living wills’ in

case they failNEW YORK/WASHINGTON

APP

Five of the biggest banks in the UnitedStates are putting finishing touches onplans for going out of business as part ofgovernment-mandated contingencyplanning that could push them to untan-gle their complex operations.The plans, known as living wills, are dueto regulators no later than July 1 underprovisions of the Dodd-Frank financialreform law designed to end too-big-to-fail bailouts by the government. The liv-ing wills could be as long as 4,000pages. Since the law allows regulators to go sofar as to order a bank to divest sub-sidiaries if it cannot plan an orderly res-olution in bankruptcy, the deadline ispushing even healthy institutions tostart a multi-year process to untangletheir complex global operations, accord-ing to industry consultants.“The resolution process is now going tobe part of the cost-benefit analysis onwhere banks will do business,” said DanRyan, leader of the financial servicesregulatory practice at PricewaterhouseC-oopers in New York. “The complexity ofthe organizations will shrink.”JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of Amer-ica Corp, Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs& Co and Morgan Stanley are amongthose submitting the first liquidationscenarios to regulators at the FederalReserve and the Federal Deposit Insur-ance Corp, according to people familiarwith the matter. The five firms, which declined to discusstheir plans for this story, have some ofthe biggest balance sheets, trading desksand derivatives portfolios of financial in-stitutions in the United States.Great Britain and other major coun-tries are imposing similar require-ments for “resolution” plans on theirbig banks, too. The liquidation plans are coming amidrenewed questions about the safety ofbig banks following JPMorgan’s stun-ning announcement last month that atrading debacle has cost it more than $2billion - a sum far too small to endangerthe bank, but shocking enough to bringback memories of the financial crisis.

PM eyes more foreign investmentISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Wednesdaydirected Board of Investment Chairman Saleem Mandviwala to sub-mit a complete feasibility report on one-window operations so thatpotential foreign investors could be facilitated and wouldn’t have toface hurdles. The prime minister was talking to the chairman whocalled on him to congratulate him on assuming the responsibilitiesof the chief executive of the country. Ashraf said that an inflow of for-eign investment was critical for economic growth of a country, as inthe cases of Turkey, China and Malaysia. While briefing the primeminister about the state of investment in the country, the chairmansaid that Pakistan offered attractive prospects for foreign investorsespecially in the fields of energy, infrastructure, and informationtechnology. The chairman underscored the importance of simplify-ing procedures even further to encourage foreign investors to cometo Pakistan and undertake successful businesses. APP

Europe’s leaders at odds before summit

MADRID/BERLIN: European leaders sound unusually dividedbefore a high-stakes summit, with Germany’s Angela Merkel say-ing total debt liability would not be shared in her lifetime and giv-ing little support to Italian and Spanish pleas for immediate crisisaction. Rome and Madrid have seen their borrowing costs spiralto a level which for Spain at least would not be sustainable as itbattles to recapitalise banks ravaged by a burst property bubbleand cut a towering government deficit. Spanish Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy said on Wednesday he would ask other EuropeanUnion leaders to allow the bloc’s bailout funds or the EuropeanCentral Bank to stabilize financial markets. Speaking in parlia-ment before a meeting of European heads in Brussels on Thurs-day and Friday, Rajoy warned that Spain would not be able tofinance itself indefinitely with 10-year bond yields near seven per-cent. “The most urgent issue is the one of financing. We can’tkeep funding ourselves for a long time at the prices we’re cur-rently funding ourselves,” he told parliament. APP

CORPORATE CORNER

TOKYO

APP

Asian shares rose on Wednesday but the euro wascapped as investors concluded a European summitthis week will fail to take concrete action to resolvethe euro zone debt crisis, with Germany staunchlyopposed to sharing the region’s debt burden.

The dollar retreated from earlier highs againsta basket of major currencies while commoditieseased in choppy trade, reflecting reluctance by in-vestors to place bets in either direction before theJune 28-29 summit in Brussels.

“With expectations so low for any break-throughs from the summit, it’s hard to take anyaggressive positions either way,” said TetsuEmori, a Tokyo-based commodities fund man-

ager at Astmax Investments.“But panic-selling momentum has clearly re-

ceded, suggesting more investors are looking forprices to pick up given that many asset classeshave fallen to levels that could be snapped upquickly if fund managers started pouring moneyin again,” he said. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.9 percent,driven higher mostly by short covering and bar-gain hunting after recent pullbacks. Japan’sNikkei average edged up 0.4 percent.

Chinese shares outperformed their Asianpeers, with the Hang Seng Index jumping morethan 1 percent on strength in the Chinese con-sumer sector spurred by jeweller Chow Tai Fook’sbetter-than-expected annual earnings and on gainsin the banking sector.

Shares up, but euro pressuredon EU summit cynicism

KARACHI: British Deputy High Commissioner and

Director for UK Trade & Investment Pakistan Francis

Campbell speaks at the launch seminar of Air Service

Training (AST), Perth, Scotland UK qualifications.

Hamid Farid, Country Director Western Union,

and Naim Farooqui, Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Sindh Bank after signing an agreement.

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