International

Singh shakes head on MP-buying scam See on Page 10

SC's say on judges' term to be disputed See on Page 10

‘N’ aims to boo Zardari's address to MPs See on Page 10

*Crude Oil (brent)$/bbl 114.11

*Crude Oil (WTI)$/bbl 101.00

*Cotton $/lb 198.41

*Gold $/ozs 1,419.60

*Silver $/ozs 35.18

Malaysian Palm $ 1,128

GOLD (NCEL) PKR 38,749

KHI Cotton 40Kg PKR 13,396

Yearly(Jul, 2010 up to 17-Mar-2011)

Monthly(Mar, 2011 up to 17-Mar-2011)

Daily (17-Mar-2011)

Total Portfolio Invest (5-Mar-2011)

186.08

-9.87

-5.07

2851

-8.83

2.47

1.87

-0.85

0.30

4.82

0.21

SCRA(U.S $ in million)

Portfolio Investment

FIPI (18-Mar-2011)

Local Companies (18-Mar-2011)

Banks / DFI (18-Mar-2011)

Mutual Funds (18-Mar-2011)

NBFC (18-Mar-2011)

Local Investors (18-Mar-2011)

Other Organization (18-Mar-2011)

(U.S $ in million)

NCCPL

GDR update

Commodities

Forex Reserves (12-Mar-11)

Inflation CPI% (Jul 10-Feb 11)

Exports (Jul 10-Feb 11)

Imports (Jul 10-Feb 11)

Trade Balance (Jul 10-Feb 11)

Current A/C (Jul 10- Jan 11)

Remittances (Jul 10 - Feb 11)

Foreign Invest (Jul 10-Feb 11)

Revenue (Jul 10 Jan 11)

Foreign Debt (Dec 10)

Domestic Debt (Dec 10)

Repatriated Profit (Jul- Jan 10)

LSM Growth (Jan 11)

GDP Growth FY10EPer Capita Income FY10Population

$17.61bn

14.33%

$15.33bn

$25.60bn

$(10.27)bn

$(81)mn

$6.96bn

$1.23bn

Rs 765bn

$58.39bn

Rs 5497.4bn

$338.2mn

0.83%

4.10%

$1,051

175.48mn

Economic Indicators

Symbols

MCB (1 GDR= 2 Shares)

OGDC (1 GDR= 10 Shares)

UBL (1 GDR= 4 Shares)

LUCK (1 GDR= 4 Shares)

HUBC (1 GDR= 25 Shares)

$.Price

2.60

15.18

2.00

1.70

11.04

PKR/Shares

110.93

129.53

42.67

36.27

37.67

T-Bills (3 Mths)

T-Bills (6 Mths)

T-Bills (12 Mths)

Discount Rate

Kibor (1 Mth)

Kibor (3 Mths)

Kibor (6 Mths)

Kibor ( 9 Mths)

Kibor (1Yr)

P.I.B ( 3 Yrs)

P.I.B (5 Yrs)

P.I.B (10 Yrs)

P.I.B (15 Yrs)

P.I.B (20 Yrs)

P.I.B (30 Yrs)

09-Mar-2011

09-Mar-2011

09-Mar-2011

29-Nov-2010

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

18-Mar-2011

13.39%

13.69%

13.86%

14.00%

13.42%

13.52%

13.73%

14.12%

14.25%

13.99%

14.01%

14.00%

14.44%

14.68%

14.88%

Money Market Update

Symbols Buy (Rs) Sell (Rs)

Australian $ 84.30 85.30

Canadian $ 86.35 87.35

Danish Krone 15.80 16.00

Euro 119.40 120.50

Hong Kong $ 10.50 11.00

Japanese Yen 1.080 1.083

Saudi Riyal 22.63 22.80

Singapore $ 66.60 67.60

Swedish Korona 13.20 13.40

Swiss Franc 91.60 92.60

U.A.E Dirham 23.18 23.38

UK Pound 137.30 138.70

US $ 85.25 85.55

Open Mkt Currency Rates

Symbols Buying Selling

TT Clean TT & OD

Australian $ 84.83 85.03

Canadian $ 86.85 87.06

Danish Krone 16.10 16.14

Euro 120.07 120.35

Hong Kong $ 10.93 10.96

Japanese Yen 1.029 1.031

Saudi Riyal 22.74 22.80

Singapore $ 66.54 66.70

Swedish Korona 13.37 13.40

Swiss Franc 94.02 94.24

U.A.E Dirham 23.22 23.28

UK Pound 137.94 138.27

US $ 85.33 85.52

Inter-Bank Currency Rates

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Libya offers cease-fire

after UN no-fly zone voteSee on Page 12

KARACHI: MQM leadership clapping during the telephonic address of MQM chief Altaf

Hussain to mark the 27th Foundation Day at Jinnah Ground.-APP

KARACHI: While telephoni-cally addressing partyworkerson MQM’s 27th FoundationDay Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) QuaidAltaf Hussain Friday said thatMQM will not let Americaboss around if it comes topower.

Extremism has devastatedPakistan, it should be checkedbut not this way, he said.

Altaf equivocally said thatPakistan helped America dur-ing the Cold War to the full andnow it’s Washington’s turn toreciprocate.

“US must respect our sacri-fices”, MQM chief said.

He warned US over indis-criminate Predator attacks say-ing that if MQM were in powerno drone could be found hover-

ing in the Pakistani skies. During MQM government

every able-bodied boy/girlwould be bound to train as sol-dier so that they could comehandy in the hour of war, headded.He said MQM would hang thehonour-killers in public if itwas voted to the helms ofcountry’s affairs.He condemned in strongestterms the drone attack in DataKhel area of North Waziristanand asked the US to compen-sate for the damage they havedone.

“The US must paybloodmoney for the victims”,he demanded.

Altaf also told police to fallinto discipline and stick to theirduties. -Agencies

Will tell US who’s

the boss if came

to power: Altaf

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s 27th Foundation Day

ISLAMABAD: PrimeMinister Syed Yousuf RazaGilani on Friday while sup-porting the verdict of the courton the Raymond Davis case,said that it was inappropriate tohold any single institutionresponsible for it.

A statement from the PMHouse said that the country'sleadership, including the oppo-sition, had reached a consensusthat the final decision would betaken by the court.

"This consensus was also in

line with the public sentimentsat large. The court freed Davisand the verdict has been imple-mented," the statement said.

"It is, therefore, inappropri-ate to hold any single institu-tion responsible for the finaloutcome of the case," thePrime Minister said.

Meanwhile, a protest rallyagainst release of RaymondDavis was held after Fridayprayers in Islamabad.

Beside others, it was See # 3 Page 11

PM undersigns‘Davis decision’

Would have quitted if I were forced to do this: Imran

Protesters rally against Davis release

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan andUzbekistan have signed a jointprotocol of mutual cooperationin the fields of trade, economy,finance, scientific technicalcooperation, transportation/transit of goods, bilateralinvestment, power, food, agri-culture, IT, telecom, culture,and environment.

This agreement was struck inthe fifth session of Pak-UzbekJMC held here Friday.

The session was co-chairedby Syed Naveed Qamar,Minister for Water and Powerand Ruziev Zafar Sharipovich,Minister of Agriculture andWater Resources ofUzbekistan. Both the delega-tions acknowledged deep his-torical, cultural and politicalrelation between the two coun-tries and hoped that the currentmomentum in translatingexcellent political relations

into commercial and economicopportunities would furtherpromote bilateral cooperation.

Syed Naveed Qamar,Minister for Water and Powerfrom Pakistan side and RuzievZafar Sharipovich from Uzbekside signed the protocol onbehalf of their countries.

Both sides agreed to facili-tate the business community toparticipate in fairs and exhibi-tions in both countries. Bothsides also agreed to continuetheir dialogue on visa policy.The sides have discussed theissue of National Bank ofPakistan Rep office inUzbekistan and agreed to con-tinue the dialogue on this mat-ter. Pakistan and Uzbekistanhave also agreed to form aJoint Working Group (JWG)on implementation of jointinvestment projects. It was also

See # 6 Page 11

Pak-Uzbek pact forgreater interaction

Fifth session of Pak-Uzbek JMC

ISLAMABAD: PlanningCommission of Pakistan hasforwarded revised PC-1 ofHigh Efficiency IrrigationSystem (HEIS) to the InterProvincial CoordinationCommittee (IPCC).

Officials in the commissionsaid Friday that the umbrellaproject covering all theprovinces in the country wouldcost over Rs17 billion. Thecost would be shared by thefederal government, foreignaid, provinces, farmers, andsome companies.

The process took a long timeand the irrigation system wasconceived in 2005.Nevertheless, the proposal wasapproved in 2007, Spokesmanfor Ministry of Food andAgriculture (MINFA)Muhamad Saleh told newsagency.

But there were several issueswhen Pakistan AgricultureResearch Council (PARC) andother related institutions were

engaged in preparing PC-1 ofthe project. Its PC-1 wasrevised several times andamendments were made to it,an official in PARC said. ThePC1 first mentioned that theprojects would be executed bythe provincial governments intheir jurisdictions but later onPARC was made responsiblefor it.

And now again in the revisedPC-1 the power of executionwas shifted to the provinces inthe country and PARC wouldonly monitor the project, offi-cials said.

PARC in coordination withthe provinces sent revised andamended PC-1 to MINFA,which forwarded it to the com-mission. The commission afterstudying its various aspectssent the proposal to IPCC fewdays ago, a senior official said.

"The project would introducemodern irrigation systems inaccordance with needs and

See # 7 Page 11

Irrigation plan flowsinto provinces’ body

Planning Comm revised HEIS reaches IPCC IMF avoids

dating the

release of

next trancheKARACHI: According tomedia reports the (InternationalMonetary Fund) IMF hasavoided giving Pakistan a finaldate for the next tranche of theloan.

Despite the fact that the gov-ernment has taken drasticmeasures to meet the IMF con-ditions, it has not given a finaldate for the next tranche of $1.7billion.

In its fortnightly briefing inWashington, IMF's ExternalRelations Department DirectorCaroline Atkinson appreciatedthe recent steps taken by thegovernment on the economicfront, but she stood back to fixa date for the next mission.

She said that the recent eco-nomic measures adopted by theauthorities were necessary forlong term economic stability,and that she was in contact withthe Pakistani government.

See # 5 Page 11

Pak-Turkish

cargo-train

project on

fast-trackKARACHI: The proposed‘Gul Train’ between Islamabadand Turkey, named after theTurkish president, moved astep forward as a Turkish dele-gation led by Prof Dr GuvenSak, head of Economic PolicyResearch Foundation of Turkeycalled on President Asif AliZardari in Bilawal House hereon Friday.

He informed the Presidentthat pre-feasibility study of theproject would be completedahead of President Zardari'sforthcoming visit to Turkey inApril.

Turkish Ambassador inIslamabad Mustafa BaburHizlan was also present in themeeting.

The Pakistan side includedChairman BoI SaleemMandviwala, Deputy ChairmanPlanning Commission,Secretary to President MalikAsif Hayat, General Manager

See # 2 Page 11

CAA officersto strike ifdemandsnot met

KARACHI: Civil AviationAuthority Officers have giventhree days for the acceptance oftheir demands failing whichwould lead to halted operationsat all airports of the country.

The Officers of CivilAviation Authority have beenprotesting for the last threedays to get their demands metbut the concerned authoritieshave pulled their ears in.

Addressing a protest meetinghere on Friday, Civil AviationAuthority Association OfficersAssociation President GhulamMustafa Mirani said theAuthority is earning Rs7 bil-lion/year but employees' prob-lems persist as they were.

He warned that if theirdemands were not accepted inthe next three days, they wouldhalt the operations at all the air-ports.-Agencies

ISLAMABAD: In pursuanceof the directives of PrimeMinister Yousuf Raza GilaniFriday Foreign SecretarySalman Bashir has lodged astrong protest with USAmbassador to Pakistan,Cameron Munter overThursday's indiscriminatedrone attack that killed a largenumber of civilians.

According to Foreign OfficeSpokesman, AmbassadorMunter was categorically toldthat such strikes were not only"unacceptable" but also consti-tuted "a flagrant violation ofhumanitarian norms and law".It was evident that the funda-mentals of our relations needto be revisited, Bashir toldMunter.

"Pakistan should not betaken for granted nor treated asa client state. It was for theWhite House and the StateDepartment to hold back thosewho have been trying to sabo-

tage Pakistan-US relation-ship."

Ambassador Munter wasalso told that under the currentcircumstances, Pakistan wouldnot be able to participate in theAfghanis tan-Pakis tan-USTrilateral meeting, proposedby the US in Brussels onMarch 26, 2011.

Ambassador Munter saidthat he understood clearly thatthis was not a pro formademarche. He will rush toWashington to conveyPakistan's message to the USAdministration at the highestlevels.

Meanwhile, Mehsud tribeshave strongly condemned thedrone attack on tribal Jirga inNorth Waziristan andannounced 3-day mourningbesides demanding of the gov-ernment to have these attackshalted at once.

As per media reports eldersof the tribes organised a jirga

in the Political Compound atTank and demanded of thegovernment to mount pressureon US to stop drone attacksforthwith.

They said that missileattacks on innocent peoplewere but blatant aggression byUS. They urged the govern-ment to voice protest overthese attacks rather than keep-ing mum on them. Tribesmenare patriotic Pakistanis andthey would not tolerate to bemassacred for no reason, theyadded.

Talking to a local TV chan-nel, chief of the tribe MalikNasrullah Khan demanded ofUS authorities to pay blood-money to the family membersof victims of drone attacks.

On the other hand, PakistanMuslim League (N) has sub-mitted the adjournment motionin National AssemblySecretariat against US drone

See # 1 Page 11

Boiling protestall over Munter

Drone attack outrageous & unacceptable, US told

l Munter says would rush to US to convey Pakistan messagel Pakistan pulls out of trilateral meet in protest l Don't treatus as a client state, US told l Jirga announces 3-day mourning

RIYADH: Saudi KingAbdullah announced on Fridaybillions of dollars in handoutsfor his people and boosted hissecurity apparatus in a renewedeffort to shield the world's topoil exporter from unrest rock-ing the Arab world.

In a rare televised address tothe nation, the ageing kingmade a brief statement con-gratulating Saudis for their loy-alty and national unity before abattery of decrees were readout suggesting he was embrac-ing increasingly conservativepolicies.

Amongst a wave of newspending, the decrees outlineda boost in welfare benefits,bonuses for public sectorworkers, including the army,

and a massive drive to buildnew housing.

In addition, the king orderedthe creation of 60,000 securityjobs within the interior min-istry, promised more moneyfor the religious police and, ina sign Saudi's ruling Sunnielite will tolerate no dissent,said the media must respectclerics.

Saudi Arabia has mostlyavoided the protests seen else-where in the region, but dissenthas nonetheless built up andsome demonstrations have

See # 4 Page 11

SArabia ‘hedging’against any unrest

King Abdullah orders billions of dollars as handouts

FBR ‘excises’

contractees

on Gilani’s

commandISLAMABAD: On the direc-tions of the Prime MinisterSyed Yousuf Raza Gilani,Federal Board of Revenue(FBR) has terminated the con-tract appointments.

Sardar Ali Masood RazaQazilbash, AdditionalCommissioner Income Tax, Mr.Abrar Ahmad Khan, Member,FBR and Muhammad AkramMian, Superintendent (MCC)are among the terminated.-APP

Karachi, Saturday, March 19, 2011, Rabi-us-Sani 13, Price Rs12 Pages 12

KARACHI: TheWestern Union Company ,a leader in global paymentservices, in cooperationwith its Agents, has acti-vated a limited-time "NoTransfer Fee" programfor money-transfers sentto Japan from participat-ing Agent locationsaround the world.

The "No Transfer Fee"service will allow con-sumers to send money tohelp loved ones affected bythe devastating earthquakeand tsunami that rocked

Japan on March 11.

The "No Transfer Fee"

program to Japan will be

available March 17

through April 17, 2011,

and is subject to network,

service and currency

availability.

Consumers sending

money to Japan may visit

participating Western

Union Agent locations to

send a money transfer to

family and friends in Japan

or may do so online at

www.westernunion.com. -PR

2 Saturday, March 19, 2011

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani talking to Federal Ministers, Syed NaveedQamer, Minister for Privatization, Mian Raza Rabbani, Minister for inter-Provincial Coordination,

Dr Zaheeruddin Babar Awan, Minister for Law & Justice and Ex-Ministers Raja PervezAshraf and Nazar Muhammad Gondal who called on him at PM’s House -APP

Staff Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: PrimeMinister Syed Yusuf RazaGilani while reiteratingthe policy of reconcilia-tion of the Governmenthas said that theGovernment is taking allmeasures to bring normal-cy in restive areas ofBalochistan. For that mat-ter, he added, all the lead-ers of the parliamentaryparties will be consultedto form a committee. Thecommittee will contact thealienated Baloch leader-ship to reconcile and willseek their suggestions to

restore the law and ordersituation in Balochistan,said the Prime Minister.

The Prime Ministerexpressed these viewswhile talking to IsrarullahZehri, Minister for Food& Agriculture who calledon him at Prime Minister'sHouse on Friday.

The Prime Minister saidthat Pakistan is an agrari-an economy, therefore,agriculture sector plays apivotal role in our econo-my. Due to timely provi-sion of seed and fertiliz-ers, he added, theGovernment is expectingbumper crops. The

Government, he said, isplanning to benefit fromthe knowledge and tech-nology and expertise ofother countries for thetraining of our growers.

The Prime Minister saidthat the development ofBalochistan depends ondevelopment of agricul-ture. He asked theMinister for Food &Agriculture to take allstakeholders on board andformulate a comprehen-sive programme to helpthe farmers ofBalochistan.

The Prime Minister saidthat the PPP Government

is determined to reducethe sense of deprivation ofour Baloch brothrs. TheGovernment, he added,has started implementing' A g a z - e - h a q o o q - e -Balochistan'. The requisitefunds for the developmentprojects are also beingreleased to bring theprovince at par with otherfederating units, he added.

The Minister apprisedthe Prime Minister ofvarious projects initiatedby his ministry in floodaffected areas. He alsodiscussed with him mat-ters pertaining to his min-istry.

Committee to contact alienated Baloch leaders

Govt determined to

develop Balochistan: PM

ISLAMABAD: ManagingDirector, Pakistan ElectricPower Company (PEPCO),Rasul Khan Mahsud onFriday said arrangementshave been made to ensuremaximum relief to powerconsumers during summer.

"The situation would bedifferent as compared to lastyear. It is projected thatthere would be shortfall ofaround 1900MW while pre-vious year it was 4,000MW.I do not say there would beno load-shedding duringsummer, but I assure thatconsumers would be givenmaximum relief," he told anews channel.

In an exclusive talk after a

meeting on power situationhere, the ManagingDirector said PEPCOrequires around 27,000MTof fuel every day and if gasand fuel is adequately pro-vided we can control loadshedding.

As far as natural gas isconcerned, he said duringsummer the domestic usageof this commodity is mini-mum and added this savingwould also come to our sys-tem.

He assured that during thesummer, the industry anddomestic users would beprovided maximum relief asfar as power supply is con-cerned.-APP

PEPCO

promises relief

in load shedding ISLAMABAD: ChairmanJoints Chiefs of StaffCommittee (CJCSC),General Kahlid ShameemWynne, who is on an offi-cial visit to Turkey, in aseries of meetings calledon General ErdalCeylanoglu CommanderTurkish Land Forces anddiscussed matters of bilat-eral interest and mutualcooperation.

Both leaders emphasizedon enhanced militarycooperation and need forjoint exercises to enableinteroperability of landforces, an ISPR pressrelease said on Friday.

Later, Chairman calledon Admiral Ugur YigitCommander Turkish NavalForces. He appreciated

Turkish participation inrecently concluded navalexercise; AMAN III hostedby Pakistan Navy andunderlined the importanceof greater maritime coop-eration between both coun-tries.

This was followed by acall on General HassanAksay CommanderTurkish Air Force. GeneralWynne congratulatedGeneral Hassan Aksay onthe upcoming centenarycelebrations of Turkish AirForce and reiterated thatthe existing close bondagebetween the two air forceswould continue to prosper.

CJCSC also visitedASELSAN Complex andTurkish AerospaceIndustries.-APP

CJCSC calls

on Turkish

commanders

ISLAMABAD: TheSupreme Court on Fridayreserved its verdict on theissue of 141 acre Railwaysland in Lahore, which wasleased out during theregime of former presidentPervez Musharraf.

A two-member benchcomprising Chief JusticeIftikhar MuhammadChaudhry and JusticeGhulam Rabbani reservedits decision after the coun-sel for parties concludedtheir arguments.

Earlier, the counsel forthe Secretary Railways pre-sented the whole record ofthe transaction and said thathis client had clearly direct-ed him to assist the court

and place relevant recordand facts before it forreaching a just decision.

The Auditor GeneralRailways also presented areport saying that the dealhad incurred a loss ofRs290 million to the organ-isation.

Makhdoom Ali Khan,counsel for HusnainConstruction Company,denied the figures and saidthat the transaction did notcause any loss to thePakistan Railways.

He said last year the com-pany paid about Rs40 mil-lion to the government.

Ali Raza, counsel forRoyal Palm Golf Club,defended the deal and said

that the deal was done afterabiding by all the rules andregulations.

Mian Allah Nawaz, coun-sel for Ishaq KhanKhakwani and DrMobashir Hassan, the peti-tioners, contended that theRailways land was leasedout to Royal Palms andCountry Golf Club Lahorein a highly objectionablemanner in 2001.

He claimed that initialarea, which was to beleased out, was around 103acres but later on it wasincreased to 141 acres,besides, the period of leasewas extended to 49 yearsfrom 33 years in a shadowymanner. -APP

SC reserves verdict on

Railways land scam

Staff Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: Ministerfor Railways Haji GhulamAhmed Bilour Fridaydirected JapanInternational CooperationAgency and the ministry'sconcerned formation toexpedite work on KarachiCircular Railway project.

In a meeting with a six-member JICA delegationof technical experts,headed by Ken Kato, therailways minister saiddelay in project has raisedserious concerns amongthe public facing acutetransport problems.

The Japanese delegationexpressed satisfaction onperformance of the

Karachi Urban TransportCorporation that has com-pleted maximum of thetask assigned to it regard-ing the circular railwayproject.

The delegationinformed the minister thata team of technicalexperts would reachPakistan in June this yearto survey design of theproject that would alsocomprise its geo-technicalinvestigation.

Ken Kato apprised theminister that followingthe appraisal missionproject, Japan would holddetailed discussion on theprovision of loan facilityand ascertain the timeperiod for the purpose.

Early completion

of Khi Circular

Railway directed

ISLAMABAD: Fruits and vegetables are grown on a largearea across the country but Pakistan is not fully utilizing itsexport potential of horticulture products.

Due to insufficient storage, processing facilities and poorvalue chain horticulture exports were not at their fullpotential, Mahfooz Elahi, President Islamabad Chamber ofCommerce & Industry (ICCI) made these remarks whileaddressing the exporters of fruit and vegetable at ICCI.

He said that foreign exchange earnings through exportsof fruit and vegetables stood around $302 million inJanuary 2011. Government should give emphasis on thedevelopment of horticulture sector and should take pro-gressive initiatives to venture for the exploitation of exportpotential and to search more markets like South Americancountries, North Africa, Central Asian states and SouthAsian region, he emphasized.

ICCI President was of the view that horticulture exportscould be increased through deeper penetration into newexisting and friendly markets and also simultaneouslyobtaining higher per unit price through better packagingand ensuring quality of commodities. Pakistani fruits andvegetables are in demand in almost all over the world soTDAP should interested exporters to increase exports, hemaintained.-Online

ICCI forhorticulture

products export

TFD Report

KARACHI: As a first steptowards the changing ofpeople's perception aboutPakistan, Old Students'Association ofGovernment College ofCommerce and Economics(COMMECS), in collabo-ration with KarachiChamber of Commerce &Industry (KCCI), organ-ised "Mera PakistanConference 2011" inKarachi.

This conference provid-ed an opportunity for the

business community, aca-demics, industry profes-sionals, government offi-cials and policy makers, toshare their love of the landand exchange ideas todevelop a new vision forthe future of this country.

Aside from highlightingmany natural and humanresources of Pakistan, factsand figures were also pre-sented about various sec-tors of business, trade andindustry as well as theopportunities available toentrepreneurs and vision-aries.

‘Mera Pakistan’

moot, a success

22 Indian

fishermen held

KARACHI: PakistaniMaritime Security agency onFriday arrested 22 Indianfishermen for violatingPakistani territorial waters.

According to Maritimesecurity agency spokesmanthe Indian fishermen hadviolated the Pakistani terri-torial waters. -Online

First ever

web awardsStaff Reporter

KARACHI: First EverPakistan Web Awards wereheld in Karachi at a localhotel by "The Xeptionalz".Sindh IT MinisterMohammad Raza Haroonwas the chief guest. The ini-tiative was supported by ITDepartment, Governmentof Sindh, Pakistan SoftwareExport Board (PSEB) andCity District GovernmentKarachi (CDGK).

On the occasion, the newrevamped look of SindhGovernment Web Portaland Sindh IT Department'swebsite were also demon-strated. Raza Haroonbriefed about the enhance-ment of these websites andappreciated the work.

Diamond Award (1stPosition) for the best web-site in Pakistan went towww.satmaptrg.com nomi-nated under category"IT/ITeS". Platinum Award(2nd Position) to www.trib-une.com.pk in the category"Press & Media". For GoldAward (3rd Position) tie-upoccurred and two websiteswww.ufone.com andwww.jazzjazba.com wonGold Award. Both the web-sites were nominated undercategory "Cellular /Telecom Companies".

Western Union offers freemoney transfers to Japan

KARACHI: The Sindh Minister, Ms Shazia Marri, per-formed the inauguration of a flower exhibition and springfestival.

Speaking on the occasion, she said that flowers andgreenery are part of nature of human being because thesebeautify surroundings with natural fragrance and helpreduce pollution.

Shazia Marri, who holds the portfolio of ElectricPower, also said on the occasion that the government ismaking all out efforts to enhance power generation to fillthe gap between availability and utilization of electricityand that `we will ensure to reduce load shedding at mini-mum possible level'. -APP

‘Govt trying to overcome power crisis’

MUMBAI: The Indian rupeeclosed higher on Friday on theback of the euro's gain againstthe dollar, but negative domes-tic shares and high oil priceschecked a sharper rise.

The partially convertiblerupee ended at 45.13/14 perdollar, 0.1 per cent strongerthan its previous close of45.18/19. It had moved in arange of 45.0500-45.1475intra-day.

The euro was at $1.4125,firmer than Thursday's close of$1.4016.

"The rupee will continue tobe rangy in the near term. Ilargely see it in a range of45.00-45.50," said AshtoshRaina, head of foreignexchange trading at HDFCBank in Mumbai.

"There are inflows in themarket that is supporting therupee, but dollar demand fromoil importers is also high," hesaid. Indian shares declined fora second week in a row, shed-ding 1.5 per cent on Friday.

The one-month onshore for-ward premium was at 33.50

points, higher than 31.00 onThursday, while the three-month premium rose to 83.25points from 83.00 and the one-year climbed to 288.50 pointsfrom 284.50.

The one-month offshore non-deliverable forward contractswere quoted at 45.46, weakerthan the onshore spot rate.

In the currency futures mar-ket, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contractson the National StockExchange, the MCX-SX andthe United Stock Exchangewere all at 45.2075, with thetotal traded volume at about$7.34 billion. -Reuters

Indian rupee upon strong euro

3Saturday, March 19, 2011

Currencies Rate

Karachi: The following are the London Inter-Bank Offered Rates (LIBOR).

British Members Association Interest Settlement Rates.

AT 11:00 LONDON TIME 18/03/2011

A USD GBP CAD EUR JPY

O/N 0.20550 0.55688 0.96250 0.65000 SN 0.14375

1WK 0.23870 0.57750 1.00083 0.72938 0.15375

2WK 0.24470 0.58375 1.03533 0.77938 0.16500

1MO 0.25350 0.61438 1.07917 0.84500 0.16125

2MO 0.28400 0.68375 1.13167 0.98313 0.17375

3MO 0.30900 0.80563 1.20167 1.12250 0.20000

4MO 0.35050 0.88813 1.26833 1.21750 0.24563

5MO 0.40800 0.99313 1.32583 1.31500 0.30000

6MO 0.46000 1.10875 1.38250 1.43563 0.34625

7MO 0.51100 1.19250 1.46583 1.50750 0.39625

8MO 0.56125 1.27750 1.54583 1.58063 0.44438

9MO 0.61075 1.36125 1.61750 1.65813 0.49000

10MO 0.66000 1.44188 1.70333 1.73313 0.51688

11MO 0.71300 1.51188 1.78500 1.80188 0.54375

12MO 0.77050 1.57938 1.86333 1.87250 0.57125

Countries Selling Buying BuyingTT & OD TT Clean OD/T.CHQ

U.S.A. 85.50 85.30 85.05

U.K. 138.27 137.94 137.51

EURO 120.35 120.07 119.68

CANADA 87.06 86.85 86.63

SWITZERLAND 94.24 94.02 93.77

AUSTRALIA 85.03 84.83 84.60

SWEDEN 13.40 13.37 13.33

JAPAN 1.04 1.04 1.04

NORWAY 15.23 15.19 15.15

SINGAPORE 66.70 66.54 66.36

DENMARK 16.14 16.10 16.06

SAUDI ARABIA 22.80 22.74 22.68

HONG KONG 10.96 10.93 10.90

CHINA 13.01 12.98 12.95

KUWAIT 307.48 306.76 305.95

MALAYSIA 27.90 27.84 27.77

NEW ZEALAND 61.81 61.66 61.50

QATAR 23.48 23.42 23.36

U.A.E. 23.28 23.22 23.16

KR WON 0.08 0.07 0.07

THAILAND 2.82 2.81 2.80

1WEEK 2 WEEK 1 MONTH 3 MONTH 6 MONTH 9 MONTH 1YEAR 2YEARS

BID ASK BID ASK BID ASK BID ASK BID ASK BID ASK BID ASK BID ASK

ABLN 12.85 13.35 12.85 13.35 12.85 13.35 13.35 13.60 13.60 13.85 13.70 14.20 13.80 14.30 14.00 14.50

JSBL 13.00 13.50 13.00 13.50 12.95 13.45 13.30 13.55 13.60 13.85 13.70 14.20 13.80 14.30 13.90 14.40

ASPK 12.95 13.45 12.95 13.45 12.95 13.45 13.30 13.55 13.50 13.75 13.60 14.10 13.75 14.25 13.85 14.35

CIPK 12.90 13.40 12.80 13.30 12.80 13.30 13.30 13.55 13.50 13.75 13.60 14.10 13.80 14.30 13.90 14.40

DBPK 12.90 13.40 12.75 13.25 12.75 13.25 13.25 13.50 13.35 13.60 13.40 13.90 13.55 14.05 13.65 14.15

FBPK 13.10 13.60 13.00 13.50 12.95 13.45 13.25 13.50 13.55 13.80 13.70 14.20 13.80 14.30 13.90 14.40

FLAH 13.00 13.50 12.95 13.45 12.90 13.40 13.30 13.55 13.50 13.75 13.60 14.10 13.75 14.25 13.85 14.35

HBPK 12.95 13.45 12.95 13.45 12.95 13.45 13.25 13.50 13.45 13.70 13.65 14.15 13.75 14.25 13.85 14.35

HKBP 12.90 13.40 12.90 13.40 12.85 13.35 13.25 13.50 13.50 13.75 13.60 14.10 13.75 14.25 13.85 14.35

NIPK 13.00 13.50 13.00 13.50 13.10 13.60 13.25 13.50 13.40 13.65 13.50 14.00 13.55 14.05 13.65 14.15

HMBP 12.95 13.45 12.95 13.45 12.95 13.45 13.30 13.55 13.50 13.75 13.60 14.10 13.70 14.20 13.80 14.30

SAMB 13.00 13.50 13.00 13.50 12.95 13.45 13.20 13.45 13.35 13.60 13.65 14.15 13.75 14.25 13.85 14.35

MCBK 13.00 13.50 13.00 13.50 12.90 13.40 13.25 13.50 13.50 13.75 13.60 14.10 13.70 14.20 13.80 14.30

NBPK 12.90 13.40 12.90 13.40 12.90 13.40 13.30 13.55 13.50 13.75 13.70 14.20 13.80 14.30 13.90 14.40

SCPK 13.00 13.50 13.00 13.50 12.95 13.45 13.20 13.45 13.45 13.70 13.60 14.10 13.70 14.20 13.80 14.30

UBPL 12.90 13.40 12.90 13.40 12.90 13.40 13.20 13.45 13.40 13.65 13.60 14.10 13.60 14.10 13.85 14.35

AVE 12.96 13.46 12.95 13.45 12.92 13.42 13.27 13.52 13.48 13.73 13.62 14.12 13.75 14.25 13.85 14.35

London Inter Bank Offered Rates (LIBOR)

Karachi Inter Bank Offered Rates (KIBOR)

Name Bid Ask High Low

EUR-USD 1.4130 1.4133 1.4146 1.3984

USD-CHF 0.9053 0.9056 0.9088 0.8964

GBP-USD 1.6168 1.6172 1.6191 1.6064

USD-CAD 0.9846 0.9850 0.9862 0.9806

AUD-USD 0.9936 0.9940 0.9946 0.9783

EUR-JPY 114.5000 114.5500 115.5500 110.5600

EUR-GBP 0.8739 0.8742 0.8760 0.8680

EUR-CHF 1.2787 1.2792 1.2790 1.2572

GBP-JPY 131.0300 131.0800 132.4900 127.2300

CHF-JPY 89.4900 89.5600 90.6500 87.8300

Gold 1420.3400 1421.0300 1423.6500 1402.4100

Karachi: The following are the Karachi Inter-Bank Offered Rates (KIBOR)18/03/2011

As per 22.00 PST

KASB BMA ELXIR GSL ICSL JSCM AvgRate

0-7days 13.15 13.10 13.09 13.10 13.15 13.10 13.12

8-15dys 13.10 13.05 13.07 13.00 13.00 13.05 13.05

16-30dys 13.10 13.10 13.05 13.00 13.10 13.07 13.07

31-60dys 13.22 13.14 13.15 13.10 13.15 13.14 13.15

61-90dys 13.28 13.25 13.25 13.25 13.23 13.23 13.25

91-120dys 13.45 13.32 13.40 13.30 13.40 13.45 13.39

121-180dys 13.54 13.48 13.52 13.50 13.55 13.50 13.52

181-270dys 13.72 13.64 13.62 13.60 13.66 13.65 13.65

271-365dys 13.75 13.68 13.70 13.70 13.70 13.70 13.71

2-- years 13.95 13.95 13.92 13.90 13.90 13.90 13.92

3-- years 14.00 14.00 13.98 14.00 14.00 13.98 13.99

4-- years 14.02 13.97 13.99 14.00 14.00 14.00 14.00

5-- years 14.02 14.00 14.00 14.02 14.00 14.01 14.01

6-- years 14.05 14.04 14.06 14.05 14.05 14.05 14.05

7-- years 14.05 14.04 14.08 14.05 14.06 14.06 14.06

8-- years 14.04 14.03 14.02 14.04 13.95 14.03 14.02

9-- years 14.00 14.03 14.00 14.03 14.00 13.98 14.01

10--years 14.00 13.99 13.99 14.01 14.00 13.99 14.00

15--years 14.40 14.40 14.45 14.50 14.35 14.40 14.42

20--years 14.60 14.70 14.70 14.80 14.55 14.60 14.66

30--years 14.80 14.85 14.90 15.00 14.80 14.90 14.88

Revaluation RatesTreasury Bills / PIBs / FIBs Holding Applicable for March 18, 2011

Source Events Actual Forecast Previous

GBP Nationwide Consumer Confidence 38 48 48

EUR German PPI m/m 0.7% 0.7% 1.2%

CHF PPI m/m 0.2% 0.4% 0.1%

EUR Current Account -0.7B -10.6B -12.5B

EUR Italian Trade Balance -6.56B -1.98B -2.78B

GBP Prelim Mortgage Approvals 43K 47K 46K

EUR Trade Balance -3.3B -2.0B -1.1B

CAD Core CPI m/m 0.2% 0.5% 0.0%

CAD CPI m/m 0.3% 0.4% 0.3%

Previous Day

Central Bank Next Meeting Last Change Current

Interest Rate

Bank of Canada April 12, 2011 September 8, 2010 1%

Bank of England April 7, 2011 March 5, 2009 0.50%

Bank of Japan April 7, 2011 December 19, 2008 0.10%

Swiss National Bank December 15, 2011 March 12, 2009 0.25%

The Reserve Bank of Australia April 5, 2011 November 2, 2010 4.75%

Federal Reserve January 1, 2001 December 16, 2008 0.25%

European Central Bank January 1, 2001 May 7, 2009 1%

Major Central Banks Overview

Division of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP)KARACHI, March 18,2011 Treasury Management Division of National Bank ofPakistan (NBP) Monday issued the following Exchange rates:

Period AUD/USD EUR/CHF EUR/GBP EUR/JPY GBP/USD NZD/USD USD/CAD USD/CHF

1 week -0.27 -0.22 0.89 -0.56 0.05 -0.17 0.54 -0.73

1 month 0.16 -0.20 0.90 0.55 0.16 -0.82 -0.74 -0.87

3 months 0.41 0.66 0.59 0.92 0.88 -0.21 -0.73 -0.74

6 months 0.27 0.59 0.77 0.82 0.75 0.17 -0.16 -0.36

1 year 0.84 -0.20 0.63 0.32 0.82 0.74 -0.72 -0.78

2 years 0.07 0.55 0.63 0.71 0.79 0.12 0.07 -0.32

Currencies CorrelationEUR/USD

NEW YORK: The dollar rose 3 per centagainst the yen on Friday after the Groupof Seven launched its first coordinatedintervention in currency markets since2000, and traders braced for more effortsto prevent runaway yen gains in the weeksahead.

The Federal Reserve and Bank ofCanada said they had sold yen, bolsteringEuropean and Japanese efforts to reversethe currency's recent sharp gains and calmmarkets after Japan's devastating earth-quake and tsunami and an unfoldingnuclear disaster sparked a week of nearpanic in world markets.

The dollar rose as high as 82.00 yenearly in European trade before easing to81.10 in New York, up about 3 per cent.The yen's plunge to a record low near 76yen earlier this week had pushed the G7

into action. Hedge funds and other specu-lative accounts tested official resolve bybuying into the yen sell-off, but analystssaid authorities were set to fight anyattempt to pushit back up.

"It's evidentthis is not just aone-day event.The G7 hasmade an extend-ed commitmentthat we thinkwill stretch over a number of weeks, andwe think it will be successful," saidMichael Woolfolk, senior strategist atBNY Mellon in New York.

"They've put a floor under dollar/yen at80 and they will be happy to stabilize itbetween 80 and 85," he said.

Tokyo market estimates had the Bank ofJapan selling some 2 trillion yen ($25 bil-lion) over the course of the day, similar toits a one-day bout of intervention in

September.Nomura Securities, which called the G7

move "a once-in-a-decade event," estimat-ed the European Central Bank intervenedto the tune of about 5 billion euros ($7.1billion). Markets remained on alert formore Fed and Bank of Canada action.

The euro hit a session high around115.56 yen before easing to 114.63, upabout 3.6 per cent.

As the dollar rebounded, it becamecheaper to hedge against further yen gains.Implied volatility on one-month dollar/yenoptions stood at 13.5 per cent, from 21 percent on Thursday. The euro rose to a four-month high against the dollar of around$1.4145 after the intervention in euro/yen.

The South Korean and Chinese curren-cies also jumped against the yen. Thoseexchange rates are of particular interest toTokyo, as excess yen strength underminesJapanese trade relative to its Asian neigh-bors. Paresh Upadhyaya, strategist atBofA Merrill Lynch, said it may take amove toward higher interest rates in theUnited States to sustain downward yenmomentum.-Reuters

G7 steps in to weaken yen;

market braces for more

SHANGHAI: The yuan closedup versus the dollar on Fridayafter the People's Bank ofChina fixed a stronger mid-point, just shy of the fixing'srecord high.

But trading was cautiousamid signs that the PBOC maynot want to be too aggressive inletting the yuan appreciate dueto recent global market turmoilsparked by Japan's earthquakeand nuclear crisis, traders said.

The yen skidded on Fridayafter the Group of Sevenfinance ministers agreed to actto limit its strength after theJapanese currency soared to anall-time high versus the dollar aday earlier.

"It is a typical PBOC tacticthat the more chaotic the globalmarket conditions are, the morethe central bank will try to main-tain the stability of the yuan,"said a senior dealer at a Chinesecommercial bank in Shenzhen.

"But it is also typical thatshort-term factors have seldomaffected the government'soverall long-term strategies.We remain optimistic that the

yuan may rise 5 to 6 per centfor all 2011."

China appears to be using theyuan's exchange rate to fighthigh inflation and help adjustan economic structure heavilyreliant on exports, promotingwidespread expectations thatthe currency will appreciate ata much faster pace than lastyear's 3.6 per cent rise.

Spot yuan closed at 6.5691versus the dollar, up fromThursday's close of 6.5744.The currency has now risen3.88 per cent since it wasdepegged in June 2010.

Before trading began, thePBOC fixed the yuan's mid-point at 6.5668 to the dollar,stronger than Thursday's 6.5718and just shy of the fixing's recordhigh of 6.5651 set on March 7.

Benchmark one-yeardollar/yuan non-deliverableforwards (NDF) were bid at6.4460 in late trade on Friday,down from 6.4540 atThursday's close. Their impliedyuan appreciation in a year'stime rose to 1.87 per cent from1.74 per cent. -Reuters

Yuan up on higher

mid-point fixing

SYDNEY/WELLINGTON: The Australianand New Zealand dollars soared about 5 per centagainst the yen on Friday after the Group ofSeven rich nations agreed to join in rare concert-ed intervention to restrain a runaway yen.

The Australian dollar raced to 81.40 yen, fromaround 77.50 before the announcement, leavingbehind a 6-month trough of 74.98 yen set onThursday. It last stood at 81.36 yen, still downsome 2 per cent for the week.

The New Zealand dollar jumped more than 5per cent at one stage to as high as 59.74 yen. Onthe week, it was still about 2 per cent lower.

Both antipodean currencies performed particu-larly strongly, having been hammered in the lastfew days as leveraged players dumped higher-yielding currencies in times of market stress.

Against the US dollar, the Aussie leapt nearlytwo cents to $0.9944, having skidded to a three-month trough at $0.9732 on Thursday. Still, thelocal currency is down nearly 2 per cent for theweek. Tracking its neighbour, the kiwi gainedaround 1 per cent against the greenback, coming

within a whisker of $0.7300 for the first time intwo days. It last traded around $0.7290, stilldown nearly 2 per cent for the week.

The kiwi had earlier hit a near 16-month lowagainst a basket of currencies before clawing backsome of its losses. "It was as clear as it could beand it was huge ... Kiwi is just getting carriedaway," said Westpac senior strategist Imre Speizer.

The Australian and New Zealand dollars alsomade healthy gains on the euro, pound andSwiss franc, although rising alarm over theunfolding disaster in Japan, the world's third-largest economy, is likely to weigh on commod-ity currencies. RBS's Gibbs expects Aussie/yento fade over the course of next week as theimpact of the G7 intervention disappears.

"It's still a wait-and-see period due to the highuncertainty in Japan," said Besa Deda, chiefeconomist at St. George Bank.

Investors were also keeping a wary eye onevents in Libya with French diplomatic sourceswarning a military action could begin withinhours of the Security Council vote. -Reuters

Aussie, NZD soar as

intervention hits yen

SINGAPORE: The SouthKorean won led a rebound inAsian emerging currencies onFriday as an agreement by theGroup of Seven to stem the yen'sstrength prompted investors toreduce dollar holdings, butinvestors were sceptical thatregional currencies could extendtheir gains.

While Friday's intervention bythe Bank of Japan alleviated pres-sure on regional currencies, itdoes not guarantee more demandfor Asian currencies, analystsadded. United Overseas Bankeconomist Ho Woei Chen inSingapore said the interventionmight even prompt other Asiancentral bank to buy dollars tocheck gains in their currencies.

Reflecting that view, the Bankof Thailand was spotted buying

dollars and there was talk of dol-lar-buying intervention by thePhilippines' central bank, dealerssaid. The won rose against thedollar as investors cleared dollar-long positions and on demandfrom exporters such as ship-builders for settlements.

The South Korean unit alsojumped more than 4.5 per cent asdealers said some offshore play-ers appeared to clear yen-longpositions to stop losses.

But the local currency failed tostrengthen past its previous highof 1,124.0 versus the greenbackhit on Monday and Tuesdaycapped by dollar demand linkedto domestic companies' dividendpayments to foreign shareholdersand importers' dollar bids.

The peso tracked other Asiancurrencies, with investors also

covering dollar-short positionsaround 43.70 per dollar beforethe weekend. Dealers said therewas a talk of Bangko SentralPilipinas' dollar-buying to curbfurther strength in the local cur-rency around the level.

The Singapore dollar strength-ened, with investors gunning totest 1.2700 per dollar, a levelwhich Singapore's foreignexchange authorities had beenspotted defending previouslyInvestors saw few factors thatcould push down the Singaporedollar yet, with markets unwill-ing as yet to challenge the G7intervention agreement.

But the local currency had cutsome gains on real money flowsaround 1.2730 and as investorscovered US dollar-short posi-tions. -Reuters

Asian currencies

Won, peso rebound as

G7 helps BOJ on FX

LONDON: Sterling was firmeron the yen on Friday, with theJapanese currency under broadpressure after the Bank ofEngland intervened in the forexmarket as part of the coordinatedGroup of Seven effort to stem itsrecent surge.

The British pound rose to132.30 yen from around 131.60just after 0800 GMT when theintervention started. But it gave

up most of those gains to trade at131.70, although it was still upmore than 4 yen on the day, orover 3 per cent.

Friday's coordinated interven-tion came after Japanese FinanceMinister Yoshihiko Noda saidJapan agreed with central banksof the United States, Britain andCanada as well as the EuropeanCentral Bank to jointly intervenein the currency market.

Traders estimate the interven-tion by the Bank of England(BOE) could be in the region of400 million pounds.

"It was confirmed that the BoEhad joined the intervention, but it

is unknown into which exchangemarkets and how," said PaulMackel, currency strategist atHSBC. "More BOJ interventionis possible and the BoE willshow solidarity with Japan andany further coordinated interven-tion."

Sterling also recouped some ofits earlier losses against the dol-lar and the euro, having comeunder pressure on dovish com-

ments from a Bank of Englandpolicymaker and data showing adrop in consumer confidence.

BoE Deputy GovernorCharles Bean was also quotedas saying that Britain hasentered into a "hazardous peri-od" and inflation could beabove target next year.

The pound was up 0.2 percent on the day at $1.6180 fol-lowing a brief dip to $1.6059,with sell-stop orders trippedbelow $1.6100, traders said.Euro/sterling was up 0.6 percent at 87.41, but off a high of87.59 pence, its highest levelsince Nov. 4. -Reuters

Sterling firm vs yen,

but lags against euro

Swiss francsurges

2.54pc vs yenZURICH: The Swiss francrose sharply against the yen onFriday after the Group of Sevenagreed on rare joint interven-tion to weaken the Japanesecurrency.

There were no signs theSwiss National Bank was sell-ing yen and the SNB declinedto comment on whether it wasintervening in forex markets.

Japanese shares jumped andthe yen tumbled after the G7agreed to intervene to curb thesoaring currency and calm mar-kets jittery over Japan's nuclearpower plant crisis.

The franc was trading 2.5 percent higher against the yen at0924 GMT. The Swissie was0.8 per cent lower against theeuro compared to the New Yorkclose, and was down 0.5 percent against the dollar.

"Right now it's very difficultto assess the effect on the FXmarket, but I think these exter-nal events will be the maindriver for the Swiss franc in thenext couple of weeks," You-NaPark, Commerzbank analystsaid. The Swiss franc could stillbenefit versus the euro as a safehaven currency in the shortterm from events in Japan andpolitical turmoil in the MiddleEast, if these situations worsen,Park said. -Reuters

Traders bracing for extended intervention campaign

Disclaimer:All reports and recommendations have been prepared for your information

only. Summary and Analysis are not recommendation to buy or sell. This

information should only be used by investors who are aware of the risk inher-

ent in securities trading. The facts, information, data, indicators and charts

presented have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but their

accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. The Financial Daily

International and its employees are not responsible for any loss arising from

use of these reports and recommendations.

Against

many

oddsAt a time many bad stories ranging from tsunami

and subsequent blasts at Japanese nuclear plant to

unrest in Bahrain on the international front and

from rising oil prices to growing political uncer-

tainty make investors jittery, many of the good

news fail to have a positive impact on the equities

market.

Lately, foreign fund managers were seen offload-

ing their holding in the Asian as well as Pakistani

markets. While FDI inflows remain inconspicuous,

IMF related funding has not arrived in Pakistan

since May 2010. Resistance posed by the opposi-

tion as well some of the coalition partners forced

the government to impose new taxes through pres-

idential orders.

One of the most satisfying factors has been the

country's external account depicting relatively very

comfortable position. The current account deficit

(CAD) in 8MFY11 reduced to US$98 million,

which is minuscule when compared with 8MFY10

deficit of US$3 billion. In February this year coun-

try attained a US$53 million surplus as against

US$132 million deficit recorded in January.

Trade deficit also reduced by 5 per cent YoY in

8MFY11 due to strong growth in exports, up by 24

per cent outpacing import growth of 13 per cent

during this period. On top of every thing remit-

tances played a key role in reducing the CAD with

cumulative growth of 20 per cent YoY to US$7 bil-

lion, raising its share in total current account

inflows to a significant of 24 per cent.

Spiraling cotton prices pushed Pakistan's textile

exports during 8MFY11 by 21 per cent YoY to

US$8 billion. Textile exports in February grew by

4 per cent MoM to US$1.1 billion, as global cotton

prices increased by 19 per cent MoM. However,

global cotton prices as measured by Cotlook A

index had peaked in the first week of March, 2011

to US$2.4/pound, have started to tread back, and

are currently down by 12 per cent from their peak

level to US$2.1/pound. Sharp fall in cotton prices

pose a huge risk for textile exports as well as prof-

itability.

The real point of concern is rising oil import bill

up 70 per cent MoM to US$1.3 billion as the

impact of surging crude prices following the

Middle East unrest has became more visible in

February import figures. Going forward, if crude

oil prices hover around US$100/barrel can pose

significant risk to the current account.

Raymond Davis has flown out of Pakistan but has

opened a Pandora's Box. Some unorganised

demonstrations have been staged after the

announcement of the court verdict. However,

silence of political parties enjoying significant

number of seats in the legislative is adding to the

anxiety of general public.

4Saturday, March 19, 2011

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Amir A. Ashary

Editor: Shakil H. Jafri

Executive Editor: Manzar Naqvi

Honorary Advisory Board

Haseeb Khan, FCA

Asim Abbas Ashary, CPA

Akhtar M. Zaidi, FCA

Dr. A. Hadi Shahid, FCA

Muhammad Arif

S. Muneer Hussain Rizvi

Khurram Shehzad, CFA

Prof. Zakaria Sajid (KU)

Zahid Bukhari SVP HBL (retd)

Ismat SabirHead office

111-C, Jami Commercial Street 11, Phase VII, DHA KarachiTelephone: 92-21-35311893-6 Fax: 92-21-35388428

URL: www.thefinancialdaily.comEmail Address: editor@thefinancialdaily.com

Lahore office

24- Peshawar Block, Fortress Stadium, Lahore

Telephone: 92-42-6675595 Fax: 92-42-6664349

Email Address: editor@thefinancialdaily.com

The Financial Daily InternationalVol 4, Issue 132

It is a truth universally acknowledgedthat a dictator who wants to be accept-ed by polite Western society shouldlook for a charming, glamorous wife.That, at least, is what the world's auto-crats are learning from the example ofBashar al-Assad, the president of Syria.

First, his wife, Asma al-Assad, wasthe subject of a glowing profile in theMarch issue of the US edition ofVogue, which described this ''rose inthe desert'' as ''the freshest and mostmagnetic of first ladies'' and reportedon the ''wildly democratic principles''that govern family life chez Assad.Now, the Harvard Arab AlumniAssociation has organised an event inDamascus, ''under the patronage'' ofMrs. Assad, who was scheduled todeliver a keynote address.

But, the day before the plannedHarvard alumni event, security officersbeat and detained a group of non-vio-lent demonstrators who gathered to callfor the release of the estimated 3,000 to4,000 political prisoners in the country.

On its Web site earlier this week, theHarvard Arab Alumni Associationhighlighted its connection with the dic-tator's wife: ''We are greatly honored tohold our Arab World Conference underthe esteemed patronage of HerExcellency Mrs. Asma al-Assad, TheFirst Lady of Syria, and are privilegedthat Her Excellency will deliver theconference's keynote address. Athought-provoking, inspiring and tire-less leader and advocate, the FirstLady's address will certainly be thehighlight of our event.''

The Web site was enthusiastic aboutMrs. Assad's role in Syrian national lifeand the connection between her workand that of her husband's regime: ''Inher role as Syria's first lady, HerExcellency Asma al-Assad applies herexperience, energy and influence to hercountry's social and cultural develop-ment. Her role reflects the significanteconomic, political and social changethat is happening in Syria today. Asmaal-Assad's work supports that ofPresident Bashar al-Assad by fosteringthe emergence of a robust, independentand self-sustaining civil society.''

According to a Human Rights Watchreport released in January last, theSyrian authorities were among theworst violators of human rights in the

world in 2010, torturing their oppo-nents, imprisoning lawyers and violent-ly repressing ethnic Kurds. HumanRights Watch said it had ''crediblereports that security agencies arbitrarilydetained dissidents and criminal sus-pects, held them incommunicado.'' Italso said that those detained were sub-jected to ''ill- treatment and torture.''

Nadim Houry, the senior researcheron Syria and Lebanon for HumanRights Watch, said the prominent rolefor Mrs. Assad was ''part of a generalcharm offensive.'' He took particularissue with the Harvard Arab AlumniAssociation Web site's reference to thefirst family's support for independentcivil society.

''This is definitely crossing the line,''he said. ''There is nothing independentand nothing self-sustaining about whatthe government is doing with civil soci-ety in Syria.''

Richard N. Haass, president of theCouncil on Foreign Relations, said hewas surprised that Syria - which effec-tively occupied Lebanon for almost 30years, allied itself with Iran and aidedgroups like Hamas - had faced lessscrutiny than other local dictatorships.''It is ironic that it has escaped, for themost part, criticism,'' Dr. Haass said.

The Harvard Arab AlumniAssociation's Web site includes a dis-claimer describing itself as an inde-pendent, not-for-profit organisation andstating: ''Nothing that is published bythe HAAA should be taken to representthe opinions or endorsement of HarvardUniversity, the President and Fellowsof Harvard College, or the HarvardAlumni Association.''

According to the programme, sixpeople with Harvard affiliations werescheduled to speak at or moderate ses-sions at the daylong event, includingthe ''Harvard Guest Address,'' one ofthree keynote speeches, to be deliveredby Jorge Dominguez, Harvard's viceprovost for international affairs.

In an e-mail, John Longbrake, aHarvard spokesman, said that theHarvard Arab Alumni Association wasan independent organisation but that''we are supportive of any alumni groupthat hosts a conference encouragingopen dialogue and the exploration ofideas.'' ''In his talk, Prof Dominguezwill be highlighting Harvard's engage-

ment in the Arab world and discussingthe value of freedom of inquiry andwhy liberty of the mind builds a demo-cratic society,'' Longbrake wrote.

The positive references to the Syriangovernment in a conference withHarvard involvement provoked intensedebate among US political scientiststhis week, with one e-mailing a col-league to say it was ''shocking and dis-gusting.''

But others said the event highlightedhow hard it was to strike precisely theright balance between engaging author-itarian regimes and appearing to legit-imise them.

''To me, the real challenge is to navi-gate simultaneously working with gov-ernments and civil society,'' said Anne-Marie Slaughter, a professor of politicsand international affairs at PrincetonUniversity.

Dr. Slaughter, who has been a deanand has just completed a stint as direc-tor of policy planning for the US StateDepartment, has been a strong advocateof a no-flight zone over Libya.However, she argued: ''It can't beeither/or. You can't just abandon thegovernment and focus on the protest-ers. The world doesn't work that way.The question is on which side of theline does this fall.''

UPDATE: I had e-mailed HarvardProfessor Jorge Dominguez onWednesday asking for his thoughts onthe Harvard Arab Alumni Associationevent, but my deadline passed beforewe had an opportunity to connect.Subsequently Professor Dominguezsent me the following e-mail outliningthe subject of his keynote speech. Whatfollows is not a response to my columnsince he has not yet had a chance toread it, but rather a bit of supplemen-tary information.

"I spoke this morning on severalthemes. One is Harvard's long engage-ment with the Arab world, which start-ed with the teaching of the Arabic lan-guage sporadically since the late 17thcentury and regularly since an endow-ment for that purpose was established75 years ago. Similarly, Harvard'slibrary resources in Arabic are approxi-mately 270,000 volumes, which makesit the largest research university librarycollection in Arabic materials in theworld. Moving closer to the present, I

noted that we've increased the numberof students from the Arab world from47 to 96 over the past decade, and dis-cussed how the University's admissionsand financial aid policies span theworld. Harvard is the best university inthe world for a poor person.

"I went on to discuss the meaning ofeducation. Some examples are case-based student-focused learning of thetype evident in case discussions in ourprofessional schools (business, law,public policy). There is no right orwrong answer to such discussions but,rather, a vigorous analysis of varyingapproaches.

"Then, I illustrated my own under-standing of a "liberal education" interms of a course I teach, in which ineach lecture I present an argument anddeliver it as persuasively as I can, onlyto have it contradicted in subsequentlectures where the lecture is also deliv-ered as persuasively as I can. I notedthat in exams and papers I never ask forthe "right" answer because each studentmust be able to formulate two answers.I described how competition betweenideas and interpretation is a key to freeinquiry in any society, and how the lib-erty of the mind, open to the world, isboth the most effective way to learnabout citizenship as well as profession-al life, and to construct a democraticsociety. Finally, I turned to research invarious endeavors that Harvard facultyand students carry out in various partsof the Arab world.

"I closed by praising the HarvardArab Alumni Association for bringingthe discussion to a city in the Arabworld, to build on the value of freedomof inquiry and competition betweenideas and interpretations through themanner in which they built the confer-ence program. There were several pan-elists per panel and a vigorous modera-tor who kept the dynamics going andprevented ossified speeches. Each ses-sion had a good chunk of time for manyquestions and comments where, ofcourse, the recent developments acrossthe Arab world were raised andaddressed. The HAAA deserved praise,therefore, for bringing vigorous debateto a discussion in an Arab city aboutproblems in the Arab world, presum-ably a value many of your readers mayshare as well."-Reuters

Syria's Charming Offensive

Dr. Hasnat Nabi

It is unfortunate that the rulers who are in powerbecause of the votes of masses have failed to providethem any relief. People are hard pressed because ofthe price hike., energy crises , lawlessness and peo-ple are doing suicides still politicians are so arrogantthat they are not ready to listen any one indicatingtheir inefficiency. I was amazed on the reaction spe-cially the PMLN's member national assembly on thestatement of Gen Ather Abass who asked " if thebudget allocated to the civilian departments not mis-used".

I don't know it had become our national trait tocriticize those segments that are patriotic and honestand never hesitant to even give their lives for thedefence of the motherland. If our politicians are soegotistical that they can't even bear out a commentlike General Ather gave that too as passing remarkthen they should be upright in all aspects. They mustnot do malpractice and avoid corruption. From up todownwards everyone is busy in kickbacks. They arelike termites to the nation. Our country is becomingweaker and weaker because of these corrupt leaders.

A few politicians who are honest are sidelined bytheir leadership. During his first tenure as CMShahbaz Sharif relaxed the rules and approvedlicense of only one Sugar mill and that was 'Hamzasugar mill". Soon after the approval of the licensethe ban was re-imposed. None of the political partiescan claim that they are fair and clean. They are all

engulfed in the percentages. Some one is 10 percentand the other is 100 percent. Even the religiousaffairs minister was involved in Hajj scam. May beit is due to the upright judiciary that he has beenarrested and sent to the jail. Obviously his party andthe people who were 'party' with him in the Hajj cor-ruption will go all out to get him released.

It is unfortunate at the part of our army that it hadto fight with the enemy, sacrifice lives for the coun-try and then at the end of the day had to face the crit-icism regarding defence budget. The budget which isbeing provided to the army is for peace time butright now our army is at war with enemy who arebacked by the super powers like America. After wit-nessing the death of Col Imam it should not be secretfor the nation that the people involved in suicidalattacks in the country who really they are? India hasraised its budget by 12 percent during the currentbudget. So Pakistan which is already fighting a warhas to be alert and prepared.

Our politicians are least pushed about the countryas everyone is busy in plundering and looting thefunds of the poor masses. They don't have the timeto think for the people. They only have expertise inpurchasing and selling "lotas". Now lota culture hasbeen graduated to the level of "Muslim showers" asthe most of the political lotas are from Muslimleague. Nawaz Sharif himself was the first ever lotaof the modern Pakistani politics as he was the onewho deceived Junejo and preferred to sit in Gen Zia'slap. After hugging the lotas of the Q-league they are

again claiming to be doing politics of principles.What to talk of "Principals" they are in fact "Mastersof lotaism". Election Commission of Pakistan mustplay its role by canceling the membership of thosewho are of the habit of changing the affiliations.They were given the votes for that specific party.They must contest election on the ticket of newparty. Ironically the PML-N is appreciating themembers those have joined them and is criticisingthose who have taken side of PPP. It is an 'open con-tradiction' if we say it in the Sohail Warraich's petstyle "Kia yeh khula tazad nahi hai" (Is it not anopen contradiction). It was a treat for me to watchKhawaja Saad Rafique criticising Ather Abbas'sstatement that too just for nothing. PML hasemerged as an anti to everything party.. They are antiarmy and anti civil servants too. When the federalgovernment announced to double the salaries of theemployees, the only CM who opposed it wasShahbaz Sharif. It depicts he is not aware of the realmiseries of the government servants that what sort ofdifficulties they face to manage their expenditures.

PMLN should at least accept that Mr. Zardarihas successfully played game with them. Theyhave been used like anything and their recentmove to purchase lotas' of the Q-league has leftthem nowhere. Our political parties instead ofpromoting the people who can sit on TV channelsand can make hue and cry for their parties in TVcurrent affairs shows should hire some sober,decent and professional politicians.

No ‘Lota’ Holds Water

If rebuilding after tragedies is actu-ally good for the global economy,someone clearly forgot to tellinvestors.

In the days after Japan's earthquakeand tsunami and its still unfoldingnuclear disaster, global stock marketshave fallen sharply, as have bondyields and even energy prices, all indi-cators that someone, presumablysomeone with quite a bit of money,thinks this all will not end well.

While replacing broken windowswill flatter GDP, it does not do a wholeheck of a lot to increase productivecapacity. The contrary argument, ofcourse, is that Japan is suffering froma surfeit of savings and that thesefunds will finally be given somethingworthwhile to do in rebuilding.

Perhaps demand from Japan will dosomeone some good, but the idea thatwe can all grow rich by rebuilding ourruined houses seems little better thanthe old canard that we'll all get richbuying each other's houses. Both theo-ries rest on employing more debt andboth, therefore, present considerablerisks.

Even beyond the idea that Japan'splight will somehow provoke a bondcrisis, of which there is no evidenceyet, two factors may explain why mar-

kets are so scared; the nuclear risk andthe spreading unrest in oil-producingnations in the Middle East and NorthAfrica.

First, the events at the Fukushimanuclear plant are as unpredictable asthey are frightening. Reports are con-fused and attempts to control the situ-ation, such as a failed bid to dumpwater by helicopter, evoke images ofthe kind of movie happy endings weall view as far fetched.

This brings fear and that kryptoniteof risk markets, uncertainty.

This cuts a much wider swath thanjust Japan, where nuclear power repre-sents 29 percent of electrical generat-ing capacity.

The truth is that nuclear power, oneof the most important sources of elec-tricity in many markets around theworld, now has a very uncertain long-term and immediate future. That couldhave a nasty impact on energy prices,and in turn on growth and inflation.

The impact is spreading quickly;European Union energy officialsagreed last Tuesday to apply newstress tests on plants across the 27-nation bloc and Germany moved toswitch off seven older reactors.China's cabinet said it will suspendapprovals for nuclear power stations to

allow for a revision in safety stan-dards, while Switzerland put on holdrenewal of three of its atomic stations.

This is significant; nuclear powerrepresents a third of Japanese electri-cal generating capacity, 20 percent inthe U.S. and 75 percent in France.

OIL ON TROUBLED WATERS

Oil prices initially fell after theearthquake, operating on the assump-tion that immediate demand in Japanwill fall. Prices rose last Wednesday,as fears of nuclear power rose and peo-ple worked through the implications.

This is all made even harder to pre-dict by the unfolding path of revoltsand protests in the Middle East.Libyan forces supporting MuammarGaddafi were predicting the fall ofrebel stronghold Benghazi within 48hours, a development that, whileghastly, would actually help to sup-press oil prices if it came to pass. That,ladies and gentlemen, is your globaleconomy, 2011 edition, left hoping forthe restitution of a vicious dictator.

Developments in the gulf state ofBahrain, which used tanks and heli-copters to drive protesters from thestreets on Wednesday, added to uncer-tainty. Bahrain has brought in troopsfrom fellow Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia,

Qatar, Kuwait and the United ArabEmirates as it seeks to put down alargely Shi'ite-led protest movement,risking retaliation from Shi'ite-domi-nated Iran.

There is simply no way to know howthis will work out, but financial mar-kets look to be pricing in elevatedenergy prices for an extended period.

It is possible, of course, that protestis stifled, that nuclear doubts aredamped and that the price of oil sinksrapidly, in which case you can expect amassive rally of risk assets and for theFederal Reserve to resume makingnoises about the transition away fromquantitative easing.

If not, and if energy prices remainhigh or rise, they will be a tax ongrowth and consumption, all the whilefanning the flames of inflation in foodand energy.

It is worth noting that U.S. produc-er prices spiked last month, with fin-ished foods rising 3.9 percent, thehighest rate since November 1974,when President Gerald Ford wasattempting to lead a "Whip InflationNow" movement. Tension in theMiddle East, oil spikes, inflation andnuclear fears; It is all looking a bit1970s now, and that is not somethingto be nostalgic about.-Reuters

Sometimes there is no bright side

FERTILISER000 tonnesUrea Offtake (Jan to Dec 10) 6,123Urea Offtake (Dec 10) 626Urea Price (Rs/50 kg) 1,020DAP Offtake (Jan to Dec 09) 1,317DAP Offtake (Dec 10) 90DAP Price (Rs/50 kg) 3,143

AUTOMOBILE ASSEMBLERPAK SUZUKI MOTORUnitsProduction (July 10 to Jan 11) 47,153

Sales (July 10 to Jan 11) 45,113

Production (Jan 11) 6,698

Sales (Jan 11) 6,793

INDUS MOTOR COProduction (July 10 to Jan 11) 29,078

Sales (July 10 to Jan 11) 28,293

Production (Jan 11) 5,596

Sales (Jan 11) 5,885

HONDA ATLAS CARProduction (July 10 to Jan 11) 9,279

Sales (July 10 to Jan 11) 8,779

Production (Jan 11) 1,511

Sales (Jan 11) 1,904

DEWAN FAROOQ MOTORSProduction (July 10 to Jan 11) 186

Sales (July 10 to Jan 11) 113

Production (Jan 11) 0

Sales (Jan 11) 23

BANKING SECTORScheduled bank (Rs in mn)Deposit (Feburay 4,11) 5,046,861

Advances (Feburay 4,11) 3,140,675

Investments (Feburay 4,11) 2,100,015

Spread (Feburay 4,11) 7.61%

OIL MARKETING CO(000 tons)MS (Jul 10 to Dec 10) 1,122

MS (Dec 10) 188

Kerosene (Jul 10 to Dec 10) 81

Kerosene (Dec 10) 15

JP (Jul 10 to Dec 10) 727

JP (Dec 10) 138

HSD (Jul 10 to Dec 10) 3,426

HSD (Dec 10) 634

LDO (Jul 10 to Dec 10)) 32

LDO (Dec 10) 6

Fuel Oil (Jul 10 to Dec 10) 4,331

Fuel Oil (Dec 10) 690

Others (Jul 10 to Dec 10) 6

Others (Dec 10) 2

PRICES (Ex-Refinery) RsMS (1 Feb 11) 51.74

MS (1 Jan 11) 49.41

MS % Chg 4.72%

Kerosene (1 Feb 11) 58.28

Kerosene (1 Jan 11) 55.01

Kerosene % Chg 5.94%

JP-1 (1 Feb 11) 58.51

JP-1 (1 Jan 11) 55.24

JP-1 % Chg 5.92%

HSD (1 Feb 11) 61.80

HSD (1 Jan 11) 58.55

HSD % Chg 5.55%

LDO (1 Feb 11) 55.32

LDO (1 Jan 11) 53.46

LDO % Chg 3.48%

Fuel Oil (1 Feb 11) 47,931

Fuel Oil (1 Jan 11) 45,947

Sector Updates

Symbol Close Vol (mn)LOTPTA 15.72 39.16 PTC 16.83 9.48 NCL 28.55 7.73 NBP 76.81 5.74 NML 64.07 5.18

Symbol Close ChangePSEL 157.50 7.50

SIEM 980.00 5.00

IDYM 311.62 3.53

CICL 92.94 3.26

TRIPF 133.67 2.90

Symbol Close ChangeNESTLE 3,227.50 -126.65RMPL 2,578.54 -116.45ULEVER 4,942.52 -106.73COLG 773.54 -35.45BATA 514.61 -9.36

Plus 90Minus 163Unchanged 90

Top 5 Volume Leaders

Major Losers

Major Gainers

KSE-100 Index

LSE-25 Index

ISE-10 Index

Active Issues

Saturday, March 19, 2011 5

Opening 11,858.27

Closing 11,606.61

Change -251.66

% Change -2.12

Turnover (mn) 125.13

Opening 3,595.50

Closing 3,533.88

Change -61.62

% Change -1.71

Turnover (mn) 4.33

Opening 2,755.95

Closing 2,673.05

Change -82.90

% Change -3.01

Turnover (mn) 0.06

Mostly rebound but volsremain low; resources lead

South East Asian stocks

European shares edge upon G7, Libya ceasefire

ANNOUNCEMENT

Company Period Div/Bon/Right PAT (Rs in mn) EPS(Rs)

Century Insurance Yearly 10% 109.631 2.4

NEW YORK: Lucky Charms' Lucky The Leprechaun visits the New York Stock Exchange.-Reuters

Nawaz Ali

KARACHI: Heavy selling byforeign investors and panicselling on tensions betweenPakistan and the US on recentdrone attack kept KarachiStock Exchange under severpressure on Friday whichplunged the benchmark indexby more than 2 per cent.

The benchmark KSE-100index shed 251 points - 2.12per cent to close at 11,606points, KSE-30 index droppedby 211 points - 1.84 per cent toclose at 11,303 points and KSEall-share index fell by 163points - 1.98 per cent to closeat 8,082 points.

"Due to heavy selling pres-sure by foreign funds, the mar-ket remained volatile and wit-nessed minor correction duringfirst session. However, secondsession proved to be very toughas heavyweights came underintense selling pressure due topolitical uncertainty coupledwith fear of rise in oil prices inthe global markets led by pos-sible attack on Libya", saidTariq Hussain Khan, COO atUnited Capital Securities.

According to NCCPL data,offshore investors did a netselling worth $8.8 million onFriday that totaled to a net sell-ing of $16.41 million duringthe week.

After opening the day with20 points up, market saw somemix activities during the initialhalf an hour with index movingon both sides and the gains did-n't go beyond 38 points.Thereafter, selling kept theindex in the bearish zone dur-ing the remaining part of theday. Index closed the first ses-sion with a loss of 37 points.

Selling pressure intensified

during the second session andlosses entered into triple digitsand touched a lowest level ofthe day of 11,593 points (-ve264) and finally the day closednear its lowest levels.

Jawad Khan, equity dealer atJS Global Capital said thatthere were loud whispers offoreign funds selling in keyOil, Banking & Fertilizerstocks today keeping localslargely sidelined. OGDCunderwent massive battering,after OGRA released flattishgas wellhead prices for2HFY11. POL and PPL alsocame under selling pressure,declining by 1.2 per cent and2.3 per cent respectively afterremaining in the limelight yes-terday.

Apart from heavy selling bythe foreign investors, the reac-tion of Pakistani authoritiesover the recent Drone attack bythe US in Datta Khel killingseveral tribal people andprotest across the country onrelease of the US citizenRaymond Davis too was thefactor that kept the marketunder bearish pressure.

About 125.1 million sharestraded during the day which is8.1 million shares more from117 million shares exchangedhands a day earlier.

Lotte Pakistan was the vol-ume leader with 39.16 millionshares after the news of PTAplant shut down in China dueto disaster in Japan. Other vol-ume leaders included PakistanTelecommunication with 9.48million shares and NishatChunian with 7.73 millionshares exchanging hands.

Out of total 343 active issues;163 declined and 90 advancedwhile 90 issues remainedunchanged.

Sellingrobs KSE

of 251 points

US Stocks late-morning

Wall St gains

after G7 yen

action, oil's dipNEW YORK: US stocks roseon Friday as the Group ofSeven nations moved to calmmarkets amid Japan's crisis andas Brent oil slipped, butinvestors are likely to stay cau-tious heading into the weekend.

In a move to reassure marketsanxious about the nuclear crisisin quake-ravaged Japan, theBank of Japan bought billionsof dollars to restrain a soaringyen and was followed by USand European central bank pur-chases.

Brent crude was down 51cents at $114.39 a barrel involatile trading after Libyaannounced a ceasefire andagreed to halt military actionagainst rebels after a UN reso-lution.

Investors were relieved bythe news about Libya and bythe yen intervention, saidSubodh Kumar, chief invest-ment strategist at SubodhKumar & Associates onToronto, but Friday's gainscould be short-lived.

"I don't think this is the kind ofmarket where people want toleave positions open with theweekend coming up," Kumarsaid, citing the crisis in Japan andpotential for further unrest in theMiddle East and North Africa.

The Dow Jones industrialaverage was up 100.39 points,or 0.85 per cent, at 11,874.98.The Standard & Poor's 500Index was up 8.82 points, or0.69 per cent, at 1,282.54. TheNasdaq Composite Index wasup 10.27 points, or 0.39 percent, at 2,646.32.

The iShares MSCI JapanIndex Fund was up 1.2 per cent.

Friday also marks the quar-terly expiration and settlementof March equity options andfutures, which could add morecaution to the market.

The Standard & Poor's 100index has more expiring in-the-money put open interest thancall open interest, so "therecould be a slight negative biasto option expiration," accord-ing to Larry McMillan, presi-dent of McMillan AnalysisCorp in a report.

Bank shares jumped as theFederal Reserve announced itwill allow some of the largestUS banks to boost or restartdividend payments this yearbut will restrict the amounts to30 per cent or less of the com-pany's anticipated earnings.

Wells Fargo and Co andJPMorgan Chase immediatelyannounced dividend increases.Well Fargo shares rose 2.3 percent to $32.10, whileJPMorgan's shares jumped 2.6per cent at $45.71. Reuters

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI:

Hong Kong and China stocksclosed marginally higher inthin Friday trade, as investorscontinued to worry aboutJapan and largely shrugged offa global move to help Tokyorestrain a soaring yen.

The benchmark Hang SengIndex ended up 0.07 per centat 22,300.23 points, but 6 percent lower on the week, withChina property issues leadinggainers.

China's main stock index,the Shanghai Compositeclosed up 0.3 per cent at2,906.9 points on Friday aftera 1.1 per cent fall on Thursday.For the week, that index fell0.9 per cent.

Early Friday by Asian time,the Group of Seven richnations announced joint inter-vention to keep the yen frombeing too strong. That helpedthe Nikkei gain 2.7 per cent.But the Hang Seng's highestpoint Friday was only 0.75 up,and in the afternoon sharesslipped as concern remainedabout Japan's nuclear crisis inthe wake of the March 11earthquake and tsunami.

In Hong Kong, ChinaOverseas Land & InvestmentLtd, the country's largestdeveloper by market value,climbed 6.5 per cent, nearing afive-week high after announc-ing a strong net profit for thesecond half of 2010 andunveiling a plan to increasespending despite property

tightening measures in China.Analysts said its strong earn-ings report gave fresh tradingimpetus after two recentblows, from Hong Kong banksbeginning to raise mortgagerates and the Japan's earth-quake. Other property coun-ters also rose, including ChinaResources Land Ltd, up 6.46per cent, and Henderson LandDevelopment Co Ltd, up 4.06per cent after 2010 net profitrose to HK$15.82 billion fromHK$15.47 billion.

But the Hang Seng Indexfailed to break its 200-daymoving average of about22,300 for a second consecu-tive day after briefly tradingabove that level at midday.Traders said a closing abovethis level and good tradingvolume are needed to encour-age buyers to return to themarket. But they expect thebenchmark to hover between22,000 and 22,800 until theJapan nuclear situation stablis-es.

Turnover fell to its lowestlevel on the ShanghaiComposite Index sinceFebruary 14 as investorsremained wary of bold moves.Analysts said the most impor-tant influence on the indexremains China's next step ontightening monetary policy.Japan's crisis sparked worriesin some sectors but would notchange the index's trend in thelonger term, they said.Reuters

Hong Kong,China shares

up marginally

MUMBAI: Indian sharesdeclined for the second weekin a row, shedding 1.5 per centon Friday, dragged by indexheavyweight RelianceIndustries as a source said gasoutput next year at key fieldsin its main producing blockmay drop 12 percent from cur-rent levels.

Dealers expect the market totrade in a narrow range untilquarterly earnings announce-ments, which would beginnext month. Reliance has writ-ten to the upstream regulatorindicating gas output from theD1 and D3 fields in theKrishna-Godavari basin KG-D6 block may fall to 38 mil-lion standard cubic meters perday (mscmd) during 2012-13from 42-43 mscmd now, thesource, with knowledge of theletter, said on Friday.

After market hours,Reliance said in a statementthe figures were "purely provi-sional and indicative," addingprojections on gas output

could vary.The stock was the fourth-

most traded on the NationalStock Exchange. A total of11.1 million shares changedhands on the BSE and NSE,nearly twice times the 90-dayaverage daily volume.

The 30-share BSE indexdeclined 1.49 per cent or271.06 points to 17,878.81,taking its losses for the weekto 1.6 per cent, with 28 of itscomponents closing in the red.

"Weakness in RelianceIndustries weighed on themarket today," said GajendraNagpal, CEO of UniconFinancial.

"The market should trade ina tight range in the near term.There is no immediate trigger.The next big trigger is quarter-ly earnings," he said, adding,he sees the 50-share

Nifty trading in a range of5,250-5,500 points next week.

Foreign funds have trimmedtheir exposure to emergingmarkets such as India on infla-

tionary concerns and risingborrowing cost. They havesold $1.7 billion worth ofIndian shares this year untilMarch 16, dragging the mainindex down 12.8 per cent.

Japan's devastating earth-quake and tsunami last Fridayand worsening nuclear crisishave also prompted investorsto shun riskier bets and opt forsafe-haven assets.

Investors pulled $2.2 billionfrom emerging stocks in thedays following the Japanesequake as emerging debt fundsreceived small net inflows,investment banks said onFriday, citing data from EPFRGlobal.

In the broader market, losersbeat gainers in the ratio of1.8:1, while 251 millionshares changed hands on theBSE, lower than their 30-dayaverage volume of 276 millionshares.

The 50-share NSE indexdeclined 1.3 per cent to5,373.70 points. Reuters

Indian shares down

for 2nd straight week

LONDON: Britain's top shareindex extended gains on Fridayfrom a technically oversoldposition as intervention by G7countries to stabilise the yenboosted sentiment.

The FTSE-100 was up 22.02points, or 0.4 per cent, at5,718.13. The index is downmore than 4 per cent in March.

The FTSE relative strengthindex is trading around 36,from 29 on Thursday, withLondon's blue-chip index hav-ing rallied 120 points, or morethan 2 per cent, in the last twotrading days.

The FTSE All Share Indexhas bounced off its 200-daymoving average at around2904, which it neared earlierthis week.

Peter Dixon, economist atCommerzbank said equitiesmarkets were receiving a wel-come lift after Europeanauthorities joined an interna-tional effort to help curb thestrength of the Japanese yen.

"If you look at how far wehave fallen in the last couple ofweeks a rebound was

inevitable, and the decision bythe G7 has given us reason forsome confidence," he said.

Energy-related stocks wereamong the top gainers as CreditSuisse raised energy utilities toa small "overweight" from"underweight", in a globalstrategy note, saying they hadunderperformed relative to theoil price.

The broker highlightedCentrica, up 3.2 per cent, andsaid it stayed "overweight" onregulated utilities such asNational Grid, up 4.4 per cent,viewing them as cheap index-linked bond proxies and aninflation hedge.

Credit Suisse, however,reduced its weightings in cycli-cals to a marginal "under-weight" from "benchmark", butsaid among cyclicals itremained "overweight" oncheap corporate spend plays,such as software, advertisingand autos.

OIL CONUNDRUM Brent crude oil remained

near multi-year highs at around See # 8 Page 11

Yen intervention helps

FTSE extend rally

Nikkei

up 2.72pcTOKYO: Japan's benchmarkNikkei average closed up 2.72per cent at 9,206.75 on Friday,while the broader Topix gained2.42 per cent to 830.39. Reuters

Seoul stocksjump onrefiners,

brokerages SEOUL: Seoul shares rose onFriday lifted by firm gains inbrokerages and constructionfirms, but persistent fears aboutJapan's nuclear crisis andMiddle East unrest weighed.

The Korea Composite StockPrice Index (KOSPI) ended up1.13 per cent or 22.1 points at1,981.13 points.

"Investors are growing a bitmore optimistic about the out-come of the nuclear crisis inJapan, and the focus appear tobe back on recovery and recon-struction efforts," said LeeKyung-soo, a market analyst atShinyoung Securities.

Foreign investors were buy-ers of a net 134.9 billion won($119 million) worth of stocks,purchasing shares for a thirdconsecutive session.

Japanese engineers concededon Friday that burying a crip-pled nuclear plant in sand andconcrete may be the only wayto prevent catastrophic radia-tion release, the method used toseal huge leakages fromChernobyl in 1986.

"I expect caution to pervadeas the Middle East turmoilescalates. This weekend willalso be critical in determiningthe scale of Japan's nuclear cri-sis," Lee added.

Construction issues rallied,with Daewoo Engineering &Construction up 4.7 per centand Hyundai Engineering &Construction up 4.3 per cent.

Steelmakers also rose amidexpectations of higher demandand tighter supply due to pro-duction shutdowns in Japan.

Shares in POSCO surged 3.2per cent and Hyundai Steeladvanced 3 per cent.

Crude oil refiners alsoadvanced as demand for non-nuclear energy sources was seenrising. Shares in GS Holdings,the holding firm of the country'sNo.2 crude oil refiner, climbed1.7 per cent. -Reuters

Saturday, March 19, 20116

Volume 125,132,041

Value 5,818,906,189.53

Trades 63,558

Advanced 90

Declined 163

Unchanged 90

Total 343

Current 8082.05

High 8271.23

Low 8073.73

Change i163.67

Current 11606.61

High 11897.13

Low 11589.97

Change i251.66

Current 11303.01

High 11545.97

Low 11275.32

Change i211.86

Market KSE 100 Index All Share Index KSE 30 Index

Current 19521.43

High 19939.56

Low 19484.16

Change i364.54

KMI 30 IndexSymbolsAlert ! Unusual Movements

Technical AnalysisFundamental Highlights

As on Dec 31, 2009

Century Insurance Company Ltd

CENI closed up 0.48 at 10.28. Volume was 923 per cent above aver-

age (trending) and Bollinger Bands were 16 per cent wider than normal.

The company's profit after taxation stood at Rs54.776 million which

translates into an Earning Per Share of Rs1.20 for the nine months of

current calendar year (9MCY10).

CENI is currently 2.1 per cent below its 200-day moving average and is

displaying an upward trend. Volatility is high as compared to the aver-

age volatility over the last 10 trading sessions. Volume indicators reflect

very strong flows of volume into CENI (bullish). Trend forecasting oscil-

lators are currently bullish on CENI.

RSI (14-day) 55.47 Total Assets (Rs in mn) 1,151.84

MA (10-day) 9.92 Total Equity (Rs in mn) 852.00

MA (100-day) 10.67 Revenue (Rs in mn) 206.65

MA (200-day) 10.47 Interest Expense 0.00

1st Support 9.80 Loss after Taxation (69.96)

2nd Support 9.35 EPS 09 (Rs) (1.53)

1st Resistance 10.60 Book value / share (Rs) 18.63

2nd Resistance 10.95 PE 10 E (x) 6.43

Pivot 10.15 PBV (x) 0.55

Technical AnalysisFundamental Highlights

As on Jun 30, 2010

CEPB closed up 1.00 at 16.51. Volume was 112 per cent above aver-

age and Bollinger Bands were 35 per cent narrower than normal. The

company's loss after taxation stood at Rs26.703 million which trans-

lates into a Loss Per Share of Rs3.16 for the half year of current fiscal

year (1HFY11).

CEPB is currently 5.8 per cent below its 200-day moving average and

is displaying an upward trend. Volatility is extremely high when com-

pared to the average volatility over the last 10 trading sessions. Volume

indicators reflect volume flowing into and out of CEPB at a relatively

equal pace. Trend forecasting oscillators are currently bullish on CEPB.

RSI (14-day) 62.02 Total Assets (Rs in mn) 14,069.28

MA (10-day) 15.29 Total Equity (Rs in mn) 4,894.56

MA (100-day) 16.42 Revenue (Rs in mn) 9,702.31

MA (200-day) 17.52 Interest Expense 1,141.10

1st Support 15.89 Profit after Taxation 42.32

2nd Support 15.24 EPS 10 (Rs) 0.599

1st Resistance 16.85 Book value / share (Rs) 69.25

2nd Resistance 17.16 PE 11 E (x) -

Pivot 16.20 PBV (x) 0.24

Century Paper & Board Mills Ltd

Technical AnalysisFundamental Highlights

As on Jun 30, 2010

CHBL closed down -0.13 at 2.54. Volume was 76 per cent above average

and Bollinger Bands were 66 per cent wider than normal. The company's

loss after taxation stood at Rs1.687 billion which translates into a Loss

Per Share of Rs14.68 for the half year of current fiscal year (1HFY11).

CHBL is currently 23.0 per cent below its 200-day moving average and

is displaying an upward trend. Volatility is high as compared to the aver-

age volatility over the last 10 trading sessions. Volume indicators reflect

moderate flows of volume into CHBL (mildly bullish). Trend forecasting

oscillators are currently bullish on CHBL.

RSI (14-day) 44.41 Total Assets (Rs in mn) 19,386.32

MA (10-day) 2.67 Total Equity (Rs in mn) 556.88

MA (100-day) 3.02 Revenue (Rs in mn) 8,857.80

MA (200-day) 3.30 Interest Expense 1,308.78

1st Support 2.38 Loss after Taxation (2,027.97)

2nd Support 2.23 EPS 10 (Rs) (17.635)

1st Resistance 2.80 Book value / share (Rs) 4.84

2nd Resistance 3.07 PE 11 E (x) -

Pivot 2.65 PBV (x) 0.52

Chenab Limited

Technical AnalysisFundamental Highlights

As on Dec 31, 2009

ANL closed up 0.01 at 9.08. Volume was 31 per cent below averageand Bollinger Bands were 22 per cent narrower than normal. The com-pany's loss after taxation stood at Rs1.395 billion which translates intoa Loss Per Share of Rs3.13 for the year ended CY10.ANL is currently 14.6 per cent below its 200-day moving average andis displaying a downward trend. Volatility is high as compared to theaverage volatility over the last 10 trading sessions. Volume indicatorsreflect volume flowing into and out of ANL at a relatively equal pace.Trend forecasting oscillators are currently bearish on ANL.

RSI (14-day) 42.89 Total Assets (Rs in mn) 38,525.22

MA (10-day) 9.11 Total Equity (Rs in mn) 18,469.71

MA (100-day) 10.41 Revenue (Rs in mn) 11,737.86

MA (200-day) 10.63 Interest Expense 2,424.42

1st Support 8.96 Profit after Taxation 60.53

2nd Support 8.77 EPS 09 (Rs) 0.003

1st Resistance 9.29 Book value / share (Rs) 37.85

2nd Resistance 9.43 PE 10 E (x) -

Pivot 9.10 PBV (x) 0.24

Azgard Nine Limited

OIL AND GAS

Performance of SR Oil and Gas Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

1,468.80 1,476.35 1,420.19 1,431.60 -37.20 -2.53

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

7,536,595 12 - 65,194.15 mn 1,061,050.94 mn 1,497.77

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

9.91 3.23 32.54 55.94 5.64 1,431.60

Attock Petroleum 691 6.37 351.02 357.50 347.10 352.29 1.27 243367 401.00 321.00 300 20B115.00 -

Attock Refinery 853 4.89 123.88 124.45 119.60 120.08 -3.80 1028499 146.90 98.25 - - - -

BYCO Petroleum 3921 - 9.35 9.55 9.22 9.33 -0.02 569843 12.24 8.20 - - - -

Mari Gas Company XD 735 7.55 107.66 110.99 105.11 108.70 1.04 10989 141.65 99.46 31 - 23.43 -

National Refinery 800 6.00 291.52 294.90 285.00 289.48 -2.04 117490 335.00 254.00 200 - - -

Oil & Gas Development 43009 9.54 146.54 147.20 139.55 141.06 -5.48 2117531 185.00 139.55 55 - 15.00 -

Pak Petroleum 11950 7.47 209.18 209.50 203.00 204.34 -4.84 883587 229.80 190.10 90 20B 50.00 -

Pak Oilfields 2365 7.34 322.40 324.90 318.00 318.57 -3.83 2219177 341.50 277.09 255 -100.00 -

Pak Refinery Limited 350 - 103.88 103.50 101.50 101.70 -2.18 25750 122.22 83.00 - - - -

P.S.O XD 1715 4.66 280.44 281.50 274.00 275.40 -5.04 884111 317.79 265.00 80 - 50.00 -

Shell Gas LPG 226 - 26.07 26.20 25.25 26.00 -0.07 2548 35.74 24.66 - - - -

Shell Pakistan 685 10.52 205.73 210.00 204.20 205.15 -0.58 3546 222.00 186.83 120 - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

PERSONAL GOODS

Performance of SR Personal Goods Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

986.03 995.24 972.27 976.22 -9.81 -0.99

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

17,423,063 211 73 47,070.70 mn 132,206.54 mn 992.61

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

6.42 0.56 8.64 16.68 2.60 976.22

(Colony) Thal 56 - 1.80 1.74 1.74 1.74 -0.06 2000 1.80 0.50 - - - -

Amtex Limited 2594 - 2.67 2.87 2.60 2.64 -0.03 312759 4.68 2.35 - 30B - -

Artistic Denim 840 6.97 19.37 19.65 19.25 19.37 0.00 323 24.59 19.05 20 - - -

Azam Textile 133 0.44 2.40 2.74 2.60 2.73 0.33 2023 3.00 1.86 7.5 - - -

Azgard Nine 4493 - 9.07 9.24 8.91 9.08 0.01 3643935 12.84 8.05 - - - -

Babri Cotton 33 0.18 15.35 15.45 14.40 14.50 -0.85 1100 16.60 9.50 - 15B - -

Bannu Woolen XD 76 0.50 17.09 17.95 16.40 17.51 0.42 15254 17.95 12.76 20 - - -

Bata (Pak) 76 4.47 523.97 545.00 512.00 514.61 -9.36 1006 700.00 493.50 280 - - -

Chenab Limited 1150 - 2.67 2.92 2.50 2.54 -0.13 118926 3.50 2.05 - - - -

Colgate Palm 316 24.60 808.99 844.99 768.55 773.54-35.45 123 1020.00 768.55 135 15B - -

Colony Mills Ltd 2442 2.02 2.30 2.73 2.40 2.30 0.00 101 2.97 2.00 - - - -

Crescent Jute 238 - 1.00 1.06 0.71 0.99 -0.01 5506 1.43 0.32 - - - -

D S Ind Ltd 600 - 1.56 1.70 1.45 1.48 -0.08 29610 2.04 1.20 - - - -

Dawood Lawrencepur 514 21.81 44.33 44.95 42.25 42.52 -1.81 15585 49.05 35.00 5 15B - -

Dewan Khalid Textile 57 0.22 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 0.00 4000 3.20 1.50 - - - -

Dewan Mushtaq Textile 34 0.14 4.05 4.24 4.00 4.00 -0.05 2001 8.90 3.30 - - - -

Ellcot Spinning 110 0.59 26.05 27.20 26.00 26.00 -0.05 1134 27.66 19.31 35 - - -

Gadoon Textile XD 234 0.80 80.18 83.00 81.18 81.44 1.26 802 91.00 65.00 70 - - -

Gillette Pakistan 192 22.35 54.99 52.26 52.25 54.99 0.00 122 62.70 52.25 - - - -

Gulistan Spinning 146 0.32 8.00 8.00 7.65 7.65 -0.35 12470 9.23 5.02 10 - - -

Gulshan Spinning 222 0.37 10.03 10.00 9.51 9.97 -0.06 2402 11.00 6.56 10 20B - -

H M Ismail 120 - 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.00 353 1.49 0.42 - - - -

Hira Textile Mills Ltd. 716 0.91 4.59 4.75 4.41 4.52 -0.07 50218 5.20 3.31 10 - - -

Ibrahim Fibres 3105 3.51 47.12 48.99 44.77 48.49 1.37 2002 55.00 37.56 20 - - -

Idrees Textile 180 2.35 4.23 4.49 4.25 4.27 0.04 37600 4.95 3.01 10 - - -

Indus Dyeing 181 2.69 308.09 320.99 292.71 311.62 3.53 300 339.99 188.01 50 - 50.00 -

Ishaq Textile 97 1.41 6.50 7.50 6.25 6.50 0.00 266 8.70 6.25 8 - - -

Janana D Mal 48 0.31 14.40 15.25 14.30 14.40 0.00 350 18.00 13.15 - - - -

Khalid Siraj 107 0.19 1.05 1.10 0.92 1.00 -0.05 23062 1.69 0.25 - - - -

Kohat Textile 208 0.38 1.20 1.00 1.00 1.20 0.00 150 2.50 0.85 - - - -

Kohinoor Ind 303 - 1.44 1.78 1.50 1.50 0.06 10001 1.98 0.75 - - - -

Kohinoor Spinning 1300 0.48 1.19 1.20 1.20 1.19 0.00 242 1.74 0.30 5 - - -

Mohd Farooq 189 - 0.99 1.69 0.81 0.84 -0.15 5085 1.79 0.60 - - - -

Moonlite (PAK) 22 - 15.93 16.45 16.45 16.45 0.52 2000 17.50 4.50 - - - -

Mukhtar Textile 145 - 0.40 0.50 0.27 0.46 0.06 1842 0.88 0.13 - - - -

Nishat (Chunian) 1617 4.39 28.06 29.25 27.99 28.55 0.49 7732714 29.25 21.95 15 - - -

Nishat Mills 3516 5.69 64.67 65.70 63.80 64.07 -0.60 5176998 71.89 57.20 25 45R - -

Pak Synthetic 560 2.92 18.36 18.88 17.36 18.26 -0.10 33925 19.90 8.90 - - - -

Ravi Textile 250 - 1.02 1.23 0.54 1.03 0.01 1108 1.80 0.40 - - - -

Reliance Weaving 308 0.62 12.54 12.75 12.00 12.01 -0.53 7125 13.79 8.60 25SD - - -

Rupali Poly 341 3.81 42.16 42.50 40.75 41.00 -1.16 15405 44.40 35.25 40 - - -

Saif Textile 264 0.39 8.20 8.70 8.00 8.00 -0.20 4620 11.50 3.90 - - - -

Sally Textile 88 0.23 5.93 6.35 6.05 6.10 0.17 64450 7.94 3.63 10 - - -

Samin Textile 267 4.56 6.39 6.40 5.65 6.39 0.00 107 7.40 4.55 - 100R - -

Sargoda Spinning 312 1.15 4.05 4.74 3.60 3.83 -0.22 3901 4.74 1.75 5 - - -

Service Ind 120 6.53 194.01 197.00 190.00 190.76 -3.25 3488 253.00 186.00 - - - -

Shahpur Textile 140 0.42 0.37 0.65 0.30 0.30 -0.07 7741 0.95 0.15 - - - -

Suraj Cotton 180 0.76 38.92 40.00 39.99 38.92 0.00 201 41.95 35.00 50 - - -

Tata Textile 173 0.51 41.91 40.00 40.00 40.00 -1.91 1000 44.10 32.41 25 - - -

Thal Limited 307 5.27 110.34 111.00 105.70 106.18 -4.16 20132 132.00 100.51 80 20B - -

Treet Corp 418 5.82 47.43 48.30 47.25 47.41 -0.02 24039 63.30 44.10 - - - -

Yousuf Weaving 400 0.58 1.24 1.88 1.11 1.24 0.00 102 1.99 1.08 - - - -

Zahoor Cotton 99 - 0.68 0.50 0.50 0.50 -0.18 20000 0.87 0.25 - - - -

Zil Limited 53 4.77 65.30 65.25 65.10 65.25 -0.05 1065 87.90 50.50 35 - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

HOUSEHOLD GOODS

Performance of SR Household Goods Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

993.10 1,000.07 983.91 989.94 -3.16 -0.32

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

59,590 15 7 3,763.71 mn 4,790.40 mn 1,004.45

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

2.39 0.25 10.64 6.27 2.62 989.94

Pak Elektron 1219 3.30 13.15 13.24 13.02 13.11 -0.04 35127 15.88 12.07 - 10B - -

Singer Pak 341 21.51 19.14 19.00 19.00 19.14 0.00 371 24.09 17.55 - - - -

Tariq Glass Ind 231 1.73 13.34 13.85 13.01 13.13 -0.21 24092 24.00 12.51 17.5 - - 200R

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

FOOD PRODUCERS

Performance of SR Food Producers Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

1,991.96 2,047.68 1,918.20 1,949.56 -42.41 -2.13

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

131,479 61 16 11,335.33 mn 274,348.82 mn 1,999.31

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

45.71 13.85 30.30 30.57 0.67 1,949.56

AL-Noor Sugar 186 1.09 45.74 43.48 43.46 43.46 -2.28 700 54.00 40.85 50 - - -

Bawany Sugar 87 - 5.50 5.25 5.25 5.25 -0.25 4000 6.50 4.07 - - - -

Crescent Sugar 214 0.71 6.25 7.00 6.99 7.00 0.75 1000 7.15 5.05 - - - -

Dewan Sugar 365 - 3.10 3.50 3.16 3.25 0.15 12562 4.20 2.52 - - - -

Habib Sugar 750 8.69 21.90 22.28 21.90 21.90 0.00 20380 33.95 20.25 25 25B - -

Habib-ADM Ltd 200 6.74 11.00 11.40 11.05 11.06 0.06 7000 12.85 10.85 40 - - -

Haseeb Waqas 324 - 12.15 13.00 11.15 13.00 0.85 505 23.62 11.15 10 - - -

Kohinoor Sugar 109 - 3.40 3.40 2.80 3.00 -0.40 36608 6.14 2.45 - - - -

Mirpurkhas Sugar 84 2.81 46.46 45.30 45.00 45.00 -1.46 1071 55.00 44.13 15 20B - -

National Foods 414 9.62 55.00 55.00 55.00 55.00 0.00 1709 75.50 52.01 12 - - -

Nestle PakistanSPOT 453 35.59 3354.15 3475.00 3187.00 3227.50 -126.65 301 3695.00 2312.94 750 - - -

Noon Sugar 165 1.28 11.95 12.48 11.50 11.95 0.00 106 13.40 9.00 - - - -

Premier Sugar 38 - 37.93 38.00 38.00 37.93 0.00 200 51.35 34.25 10 - - -

Quice Food 107 7.09 3.20 3.20 3.00 3.12 -0.08 37000 4.00 2.10 - - - -

Sakrand Sugar 223 - 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 0.00 5000 3.26 1.60 - - - -

Shahmurad Sugar 211 3.03 8.90 9.90 8.75 8.86 -0.04 2828 12.25 8.00 10 - - -

UniLever PakistanSPOT 665 20.09 5049.25 5214.99 4826.01 4942.52 -106.73 216 5214.99 4005.01 492 - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

AUTOMOBILE AND PARTS

Performance of SR Automobile and Parts Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

1,096.85 1,114.72 1,077.88 1,089.28 -7.57 -0.69

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

671,064 19 4 6,768.53 mn 40,174.99 mn 1,108.28

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

3.69 0.93 25.35 20.42 5.54 1,089.28

Agriautos Ind 144 4.75 72.46 70.99 70.10 72.46 0.00 340 82.63 66.45 90 - - -

Atlas Battery 101 5.06 191.21 193.00 190.10 190.73 -0.48 9712 205.00 174.00 100 20B - -

Atlas Engineering Ltd 247 21.91 36.00 35.50 35.50 35.50 -0.50 500 43.26 16.00 - - - -

Atlas Honda 626 9.46 136.89 137.90 135.25 136.16 -0.73 3892 143.80 118.74 50 15B - -

Bela Automotive 58 6.67 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.00 500 2.25 1.00 - - - -

Dewan Motors 890 - 2.27 2.39 2.06 2.30 0.03 584560 2.54 1.50 - - - -

Exide (PAK) 56 4.41 179.23 187.99 180.00 180.08 0.85 3779 217.44 170.11 60 - - -

General Tyre 598 4.47 22.40 23.00 22.50 22.53 0.13 3840 26.74 21.00 20 - - -

Ghani Automobile Ind 200 5.36 3.62 4.30 4.25 3.86 0.24 2301 5.49 3.71 - - - -

Honda Atlas Cars 1428 - 9.95 10.00 9.85 10.00 0.05 26570 12.87 9.52 - - - -

Indus Motors XD 786 9.09 212.08 218.00 208.00 210.00 -2.08 18045 309.73 208.00 150 - 50.00 -

Pak Suzuki 823 11.56 64.15 65.00 63.00 63.00 -1.15 7309 74.80 60.00 5 - - -

Sazgar Engineering XD 150 4.18 23.00 23.45 22.50 23.14 0.14 9716 24.25 19.90 10 20B 10.00 -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Performance of SR Industrial Engineering Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

1,585.52 1,593.08 1,557.98 1,566.31 -19.21 -1.21

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

71,077 11 1 1,336.62 mn 31,380.10 mn 1,647.84

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

7.77 2.95 38.02 131.49 16.93 1,566.31

Ados Pak 66 7.12 9.75 10.70 9.10 9.40 -0.35 12940 17.71 9.10 - - - -

AL-Ghazi Tractor XD 215 4.64 208.79 208.00 204.00 206.50 -2.29 3159 244.95 199.05 400 - - -

Dewan Auto Engineering 214 - 1.07 1.39 1.13 1.33 0.26 14209 1.88 0.74 - - - -

Ghandhara Ind 213 8.32 9.35 9.69 9.41 9.49 0.14 3700 13.50 8.25 - - - -

Hinopak Motor 124 - 111.91 114.00 106.51 111.35 -0.56 101 138.60 106.51 - - - -

KSB Pumps 132 7.42 61.69 62.00 59.00 61.98 0.29 1153 64.43 54.05 - - - -

Millat Tractors 366 7.85 517.05 518.50 509.00 509.95 -7.10 35800 568.40 466.27 650 25B325.00 -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

GENERAL INDUSTRIALS

Performance of SR General Industrials Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

923.27 935.22 908.81 930.07 6.80 0.74

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

43,897 13 2 3,043.31 mn 34,934.16 mn 930.07

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

2.58 1.13 43.91 15.55 6.03 920.58

Cherat Papersack 115 2.35 51.50 52.50 51.00 51.23 -0.27 3576 80.90 47.80 20 25B - 50R

ECOPACK Ltd 230 - 2.17 2.31 2.12 2.17 0.00 8629 2.99 2.03 - - - -

Ghani Glass 1067 5.37 51.65 52.50 51.20 51.65 0.00 404 56.45 48.62 25 10B - -

MACPAC Films 389 2.01 7.29 7.70 7.35 7.39 0.10 6503 8.15 2.50 - - - -

Merit Pack 47 16.19 28.59 29.98 28.75 29.15 0.56 8536 33.80 22.00 - - - -

Packages Ltd 844 - 114.00 115.00 114.01 114.98 0.98 3478 143.00 105.02 32.5 - - -

Siemens Engineering 82 9.94 975.00 980.00 930.00 980.00 5.00 200 1290.00 915.00 900 - - -

Tri-Pack Films XD 300 8.11 130.77 134.58 129.75 133.67 2.90 12571 144.80 119.10 100 - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

CONSTRUCTION AND MATERIALS

Performance of SR Construction and Materials Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

859.45 872.83 832.50 837.02 -22.42 -2.61

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

3,789,337 37 6 54,792.74 mn 60,412.58 mn 873.72

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

6.13 0.44 7.10 19.04 3.11 837.02

Al-Abbas Cement 1828 - 2.50 2.70 2.50 2.60 0.10 1505 3.88 2.15 - 100R - -

Attock Cement 866 6.43 50.61 51.55 50.50 50.78 0.17 19697 63.50 48.50 50 - - -

Berger Paints 182 - 16.50 16.50 16.04 16.50 0.00 255 24.16 14.72 - 122R - -

Cherat Cement 956 38.54 9.50 9.50 9.15 9.25 -0.25 37012 11.50 8.00 - - - -

Dadabhoy Cement 982 13.08 1.60 1.70 1.52 1.70 0.10 5887 2.05 1.50 - - - -

Dandot Cement 948 - 1.50 1.30 1.30 1.30 -0.20 2200 3.49 1.25 - - - -

Dewan Cement 3891 - 1.78 1.88 1.68 1.70 -0.08 479722 2.49 1.50 - - - -

DG Khan Cmt. Ltd XR 3651 10.04 23.05 23.70 23.02 23.20 0.15 475430 32.30 21.20 - 20R - 20R

Fauji Cement 6933 5.71 4.25 4.33 4.10 4.11 -0.14 142550 5.35 3.97 - - - 92R

Flying Cement Ltd 1760 - 1.50 1.54 1.32 1.38 -0.12 23728 1.99 1.30 - - - -

Frontier Ceramics 77 - 2.29 2.00 2.00 2.00 -0.29 945 3.40 0.71 - - - -

Gharibwal Cement 4003 - 6.21 6.00 5.80 6.21 0.00 150 8.80 4.70 - - - -

Javedan Cement 581 - 59.70 57.00 56.72 57.19 -2.51 800 64.52 56.17 - - - -

Kohat Cement 1288 - 5.82 6.00 5.85 5.85 0.03 12555 6.95 5.11 - - - -

Lafarge Pakistan Cmt. 13126 - 3.16 3.20 3.10 3.10 -0.06 439531 3.88 2.65 - - - -

Lucky Cement 3234 5.76 67.49 68.50 64.12 64.13 -3.36 1951595 78.00 59.55 40 - - -

Maple Leaf Cement 5261 - 2.35 2.39 2.25 2.30 -0.05 178515 3.05 1.92 - - - -

Pioneer Cement 2271 - 6.00 6.29 5.65 5.95 -0.05 17246 7.45 5.17 - - - -

Safe Mix Concrete 200 - 5.21 5.88 5.50 5.21 0.00 111 7.95 5.21 - - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

INDUSTRIAL METALS AND MINING

Performance of SR Industrial Metals and Mining Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

1,033.38 1,043.77 1,015.30 1,031.68 -1.70 -0.16

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

42,335 7 1 3,596.11 mn 9,742.69 mn 1,033.38

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

3.13 1.04 33.10 30.91 9.88 1,020.39

Crescent Steel XD 565 2.77 26.63 26.70 26.30 26.51 -0.12 3230 31.00 25.67 30 - 10.00 -

Dost Steels Ltd 675 - 2.05 2.42 2.05 2.05 0.00 5002 2.98 1.80 - - - -

Huffaz Pipe XD 555 431.00 12.99 13.00 12.62 12.93 -0.06 500 16.51 12.56 - 25B 15.00 -

International Ind 1199 18.91 52.00 52.60 51.16 52.00 0.00 25053 62.20 45.81 40 20B 15.00 -

Siddiqsons Tin 785 40.82 9.00 9.00 8.60 8.98 -0.02 8550 10.70 8.51 7.5 - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

FORESTRY AND PAPER

Performance of SR Forestry & Paper Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

1,038.17 1,067.56 1,032.81 1,065.91 27.74 2.67

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

143,179 4 1 1,186.83 mn 2,939.48 mn 1,065.91

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

5.32 0.40 7.47 25.28 4.75 1,007.56

Century Paper 707 - 15.51 16.51 15.55 16.51 1.00 138758 19.69 14.50 - - - -

Pak Paper Product 50 8.53 36.08 37.00 35.50 37.00 0.92 2640 48.90 35.17 2533.33B - -

Security Paper 411 6.86 38.36 38.50 38.00 38.39 0.03 1781 47.70 34.00 50 - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

CHEMICALS

Performance of SR Chemicals Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

1,764.84 1,783.90 1,730.65 1,742.54 -22.30 -1.26

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

51,818,891 36 6 52,251.88 mn 373,081.26 mn 1,776.37

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

9.32 3.26 35.00 48.81 5.24 1,737.51

Bawany Air 75 8.25 7.80 8.80 7.99 8.74 0.94 13234 10.15 6.11 5 10R - -

BOC (Pak) 250 9.24 89.70 90.03 89.53 90.02 0.32 925 103.94 82.00 60 - - -

Clariant PakXDXB 341 5.14 145.59 149.00 143.05 143.54 -2.05 9773 213.30 142.00 135 25B - -

Dawood HerculesSPOT 1203 15.84 286.11 287.00 281.05 282.91 -3.20 110840 294.00 186.00 50 300B - -

Descon Chemical 1996 - 2.81 3.00 2.76 2.81 0.00 78702 3.58 2.34 - - - -

Descon Oxychem Ltd. 1020 10.79 8.28 8.57 8.02 8.20 -0.08 1500237 9.60 6.00 - - - -

Dewan Salman 3663 - 2.79 2.87 2.75 2.80 0.01 877774 3.47 2.26 - - - -

Engro Corp. LtdXDXB 3933 10.85 199.11 202.50 196.00 197.51 -1.60 3902382 238.50 189.00 60 20B - -

Engro Polymer 6635 - 12.01 12.24 11.85 11.88 -0.13 319097 15.87 11.75 - 27.5R - -

Fatima Fertilizer 22000 - 13.10 13.24 12.70 12.76 -0.34 3379464 13.30 9.16 - - - -

Fauji Fertilizer 8482 7.85 130.01 130.80 126.81 127.63 -2.38 2996232 157.90 108.00 130 25B - -

Fauji Fert.Bin Qasim XD 9341 7.37 39.54 39.75 38.90 39.07 -0.47 1676974 43.99 34.75 65.5 - - -

Gatron Ind 384 2.82 45.42 44.00 43.15 43.92 -1.50 945 52.00 41.66 20 - - -

Ghani Gases Ltd 725 9.49 10.80 11.00 10.75 10.82 0.02 29452 13.07 10.43 - - - -

ICI Pakistan 1388 9.35 168.37 168.90 162.55 163.56 -4.81 395247 170.75 138.00 175 - - -

Lotte Pakistan XD 15142 5.78 15.50 16.18 15.55 15.72 0.22 39157537 16.80 13.12 5 - - -

Mandviwala 74 - 1.01 1.08 0.85 0.93 -0.08 10009 2.45 0.57 - - - -

Nimir Ind Chemical 1106 28.50 2.94 3.12 2.81 2.85 -0.09 378240 3.34 1.62 - - - -

Shaffi Chemical 120 - 2.41 2.43 2.30 2.41 0.00 255 2.78 1.55 - - - -

Sitara Chem Ind 214 8.83 103.50 105.00 104.00 104.74 1.24 2079 131.90 90.78 25 5B - -

Sitara Peroxide 551 7.13 17.15 17.26 16.41 16.53 -0.62 436889 18.45 11.81 - - - -

United Distributors 92 - 14.08 14.20 13.20 14.20 0.12 700 14.99 8.76 - - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

PHARMA AND BIO TECH

Performance of SR Pharma and Bio Tech Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

911.32 922.01 900.43 903.75 -7.57 -0.83

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

25,522 9 - 3,904.20 mn 29,897.73 mn 911.32

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

6.60 1.47 22.31 44.54 6.74 900.29

Abbott (Lab) XD 979 6.91 83.67 86.00 83.00 83.00 -0.67 4018 112.50 78.59 50 - - -

Ferozsons (Lab)SPOT 250 6.18 91.34 91.50 89.89 91.49 0.15 1993 98.00 85.00 - 20B 12.50 -

GlaxoSmithKline 1707 15.97 81.78 82.82 81.00 81.14 -0.64 10429 89.98 68.00 40 15B - -

Highnoon (Lab) 165 7.26 26.20 26.40 25.60 26.20 0.00 102 30.48 24.50 - - - -

IBL HealthCare Ltd 200 4.33 10.77 11.44 10.31 11.00 0.23 5163 11.44 7.16 - - - -

Otsuka Pak 100 7.91 30.75 32.28 32.20 32.28 1.53 600 35.70 29.50 - - 15 -

Sanofi-AventisSPOT 96 6.68 155.07 160.40 156.50 155.07 0.00 101 174.00 134.00 100 - - -

Searle Pak 306 5.22 61.50 60.60 59.55 59.71 -1.79 3116 69.00 58.05 30 - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

INDUSTRIAL TRANSPORTATION

Performance of SR Industrial Transportation Index

Open High Low Close Change % Change

687.01 698.89 666.74 673.07 -13.94 -2.03

Turnover Total cos Defaulter cos Listed cap Market cap 5-Day High

2,795 4 2 3,242.17 mn 11,482.82 mn 696.89

P/E (x) P/BV (x) ROE (%) Payout (%) Div Yield (%) 5-Day Low

5.00 1.28 25.53 11.08 2.22 673.07

Pak Int Cont. Terminal 1092 6.44 68.86 69.75 66.46 66.99 -1.87 983 75.72 63.00 40 - - -

PNSC 1321 8.33 29.76 30.90 29.50 30.00 0.24 1812 39.45 29.35 15 - - -

Paid up Last 60 days 2010 2011

Company Cap(mn) PE Open High Low Close Chg Volume High Low Div BR Div BR

(%) (%) (%) (%)

BOOK CLOSURES

Mari Gas 19-Mar 25-Mar 23.43(I) - -Abbott Laboratories Pak 19-Mar 28-Mar 30(F) 11-Mar 29-MarMybank Ltd 19-Mar 23-Mar - - 25-MarAmerican Life Insurance # 19-Mar 25-Mar - - 25-MarMeezan Bank 19-Mar 28-Mar 15(B) 11-Mar 28-MarRafhan Maize Prod 21-Mar 29-Mar 550(F) 11-Mar 29-MarD.G Khan Cement (Consolidated) 21-Mar 28-Mar 20(R) 11-Mar -Crescent Jute Products # 21-Mar 27-Mar - - 24-MarBank Alfalah 22-Mar 28-Mar - - 28-MarOlympia Textile Mills # 22-Mar 30-Mar - - 30-MarPak Datacom 22-Mar 29-Mar 15(I) - -Ittehad Chemicals # 22-Mar 28-Mar 5(I) 14-Mar 28-MarMCB Bank 22-Mar 31-Mar 30(F),10(B) 14-Mar 31-MarNestle Pakistan 22-Mar 28-Mar 300(F) 14-Mar 28-MarShabbir Tiles & Ceramics 22-Mar 28-Mar 100(R) 14-Mar -Pakistan Gum & Chemicals # 22-Mar 28-Mar - - 28-MarUnilever Pakistan 22-Mar 29-Mar 314(F) 14-Mar 29-MarSamba Bank 22-Mar 28-Mar - - 28-MarFirst UDL Modaraba 22-Mar 28-Mar 7.5(I) - -

INDICATIONS

# Extraordinary General Meeting

Company From To D/B/R Spot AGM/Date

OTHER SECTORS

Johnson & Philips 10.55 10.5 9.55 9.55 -1 2595Pakistan Cables 53 53.75 52 52 -1 5650TRG Pakistan Ltd. 3.13 3.21 3.05 3.07 -0.06 137852Murree Brewery Co. 100.97 104.49 103.98 100.97 0 250Shakarganj Food 1.1 1.5 1.39 1.5 0.4 49000Shezan International 137.61 136 130.73 135.79 -1.82 1750Pak Tobacco 93.6 98 88.92 92.43 -1.17 146527Shifa Int.Hospitals 30.67 31.75 31.28 31.71 1.04 2500Media Times LtdXR 20.44 20.89 20.89 20.89 0.45 863P.I.A.C.(A) 2.87 2.99 2.75 2.75 -0.12 105522Pak Services 150 157.5 157.5 157.5 7.5 700AKD Capital Limited 39.89 40.98 38.6 39.89 0 315Pace (Pak) Ltd. 3.2 3.24 3 3.03 -0.17 567678Netsol Technologies 22.3 22.4 22 22.08 -0.22 187732Pak Telephone 2.09 2.43 1.75 1.9 -0.19 3166

Symbols Open High Low Close Change Vol

Jodie Foster premiered thequirky but dark movie "TheBeaver" at the South by

Southwest Film Festival onWednesday night, saying she'sgrateful for the performance bytroubled actor and friend MelGibson.

The film follows a depressedtoy company executive whopicks up a hand puppet beaverand uses it to separate himselffrom the negative aspects of hispersonality that are destroyinghis family and career. Fosterdirected the movie and playsGibson's wife.

"I can't imagine anybody elsedoing it. He has such a deep,struggling soul that really under-stood the part of the movie that'sabout a man in a spiritual crisis,"Foster said on the red carpetbefore the screening.

Gibson, who recently was sen-tenced to 36 months of probationand ordered to attend 52 weeksof domestic violence counselingafter pleading no contest to amisdemeanor charge of spousalbattery on former girlfriendOksana Grigorieva, did notattend the premiere.

The battery charge was anotherblow to Gibson's reputation,which took a major hit after his2006 arrest for drunken driving.A deputy's report leaked to thecelebrity website TMZ revealedthe action star had used anti-Semitic and sexist slurs.

Foster, who has remained asteadfast friend of Gibson,acknowledged the battery chargemade release of the film tricky.

"There were all sorts of thingsthat were beyond our control,"she told the audience after themovie, "It's been difficult. In thelast six months there hasn't beenany real audience (for the film).

I think we all made the wisedecision we should keep the filmin some ways private and underwraps until we were ready torelease."

Foster said she has no regretsabout having Gibson in themovie.

"I feel incredibly grateful tohave Mel's performance in thismovie and I wouldn't changeanything. For anybody who'sever worked with Mel Gibson,he's the most beloved actor prob-ably in the film business, at least

of the ones I've worked with,"Foster said.

"Obviously all sorts of stuffhappened after the film finishedthat threw our release into a

crazy pattern, but I certainly haveno regrets about him being in thefilm or his performance."

"The Beaver" is only the sec-ond major film that Gibson hasstarred in since 2002. It is sched-uled to open in select theatersMay 6. Joining Foster at the pre-miere were actor Anton Yelchin,who plays Foster's son, andwriter Kyle Killen.

Gibson gets Foster’sbow for “Beavering”

Saturday, March 19, 2011 8

Balanwoos

Ali Zafar

Bollywood actress VidyaBalan has proposedPakistani singer Ali

Zafar in Melbourne, Australia.Ali Zafar has millions of fans

in Pakistan and India. Heattracted millions of fans afterthe release of his first song.

In a film festival in Australia,Vidya Balan proposed AliZafar who got surprised butcovered his confusion with asmile.

When Vidya knew about themarriage of Ali Zafar, they did-n't discuss the issue again.

Abhishek fora decent gapbetween hisnew releases

There are as many as 20films scheduled torelease in April and

Abhishek Bachchan will star intwo of them - Game (April 1st)and Dum Maaro Dum (April22). The promotions of bothfilms are on in full swing.

When asked if it was a goodthing to have two films releas-ing one after the other,Abhsishek said, "The audiencewill decide if it's a good moveto have two releases back-to-back. When my films release, isnot in my hand. I just act."

Abhishek further said that hewould have preferred to have adecent gap between his twofilms.

"In an ideal world, I wouldhave not liked my films tocome so close to each other.Ritesh (Sidhwani) and Farhan(Akhtar) have decided whenGame should release andRohan (Sippy) has decidedwhen Dum Maaro Dum shouldrelease. Whether it's good orbad, we'll come to know whenthe films release," said the actorat the Videocon d2h HD and

3D launch.He further added, "If your

film is good, people will watchit. If it's bad, it can be releasingalone for the next six monthsand it won't work. So you haveto make a good product toentertain the audience."

SRK avoids

internet

social

networks

Shah Rukh Khan refrainsfrom social networkingsite to avoid embarrass-

ing comments.

Shah Rukh Khan refrains fromsocial networking site to avoidembarrassing comments andweird questions. He said thatpeople posts embarrassing ques-tions and he had no option otherthan putting up a smiling faceand replying to the questionseven if he was upset or angry.

Ranvir,

Konkona

parents of

a baby boy

Ranvir Shorey and

Konkona Sen Sharma

are ecstatic after the

birth of their first child.

Konkona delivered a baby boy.

Actor Rahul Bose posted on a

social networking site,

"Massive congratulations to

Konkona and Ranvir! A boy it

is. With those genes, the

dynasty is secure."

Vivek Oberoi and Ken Ghosh

also congratulated the couple.

Ranvir and Konkona tied the

knot last year in Mumbai.

A Novel

perfume,

Attimo up

for wearingStaff Reporter

Cafe Flo was the launch ofthe new SalvadoreFerragamo perfume,

Attimo. This exclusive eventwas hosted by Catalyst PR andMarketing and managed by thetalented Catwalk productionteam. The guest list consisted ofcelebrities and socialites includ-ing; Ayesha Omer, AnoushayAshraf, Matira, DeepakPerwani, Amin Guljee, MariaWasti and many more. Attimohas been launched by Beaute'Pakistan International (BPI')BPI is an exclusive distributorof globally renowned brands ofperfumes, handbags, luggage,and watches in Pakistan. Itshuge brand portfolio comprisesof brands like Bvlagari, Versace,Burberry, Elizabeth Arden, JohnRichmond and many more inperfumes, handbags & sandalsby Guess, Armani, DKNY,Fossil, Nixon in watches andTUMI in Luggage.

The night started with guestcoming and mingling with oneanother, then speeches fromMehmood Sarwar, the regionalsales manager Ghadeer Trading,then Abdul Samad Zeeshan,marketing manager of Beaute'Pakistan International, thespeeches ended with a fewwords from Frieha Altaf, theCEO of Catwalk production andCatalyst PR and Marketing.After the speeches, the guestsenjoyed a mini fashion showwhere the models were holdingthe Attimo perfume and wearinggowns by Sadaf Malaterre.

The night was full of glamourand elegance, and enjoyed byall.

Months before 'MunniBadnaam Hui' and'Sheila Ki Jawaani'

became household talks, therewas immense buzz createdaround how Malaika AroraKhan and Katrina Kaif wouldbe creating something extraspecial for their respective itemnumbers. On her part thoughthe usually media savvyMallika Sherawat chose tokeep quiet for most of the timeperiod even though she washaving her own 'Razia' (forThank You) up her sleeves.

"This time around Mallikawanted to adopt a differentstrategy. Rather than tom-tom-ming about the item numberthat she has done for theAkshay Kumar starrer, shechose her work to speak foritself", says a close associate,

"Hence, even though the mak-ers did give a hint about a songcalled 'Razia Gundon Mein

Phas Gayi' in the making,Mallika didn't paint the town

red with what she had actuallydone with the song."

The results are there to be seenas Mallika has taken a routewhich is an ideal mix of mass aswell as class appeal. The song ison the air and Mallika has madepeople stand up and notice heract all over again.

"In one stroke, Mallika wouldmake people move on fromMalaika and Katrina", continuesthe source, "Frankly, everyonewas looking forward to some-thing new and with 'Razia',Mallika is throwing an openchallenge to Malaika as well asKatrina and announcing it loudand clear that she still has thebest X factor between them all."

Is that the case? Well, a fewmore days and the buzz wouldclearly indicate which way thewind is blowing eventually.

Mallika gears up to

pip Katrina, Malaika

KARACHI: Model Koni catwalking during the launching Ceremony of Crescent Lawn at a local hotel.-Staff Photo

KARACHI: Models Iraj Mumtaz, Monica, and others

during the launching ceremony of the new Salvadore

Ferragamo perfume, Attimo at local hotel.-Staff Photo

Now Dia Mirza wants todirect

After deciding to turn pro-ducer, actress Dia Mirza wantsto earn another title. And thistime, it's about her wish to

direct films.The former beauty queen

who is known for her oomphfactor has expressed her desire

to direct films. It must be men-tioned that Dia Mirza alongwith actor Zayed Khan earlierlaunched their own film pro-duction banner under the nameBorn Free Entertainment. Theywill be producing and acting intheir first joint venture Love,Breakups, Zindagi.

One of the many reasonswhy Dia and Zayed decided tolaunch their own productionwas the increasing realizationon their part that they havebeen underutilised as actors.Now, with their film produc-tion in place, Dia wants to takecontrol of her film career.

So, taking things to another

level, Dia has decided to turn

director in the due course of

time. Says the actress, "I have

always wanted to direct films.

In fact this realisation happened

much before I chose to produce

films. Now, I am waiting for the

right script to come my way

before this dream turns into

reality."

Mirza wantsto direct now

Madhuri Dixit wants Rs5 crore for a film... theprice commanded by

reigning divas Kareena Kapoor,Katrina Kaif and PriyankaChopra

Antara Mali acted in a filmcalled Main Madhuri DixitBanna Chahati Hoon (2003).Now Madhuri seems to be say-ing Main Kat/Bebo/PC bannachahati hoon. Mads, on thewrong side of 40, has beendemanding the same price as thecurrent princesses of B-Town.Her last hit Devdas was eightyears ago and let's not forget, italso starred Aishwarya Rai andShah Rukh Khan.

No doubt Mrs Nene is a hugename even today, she has a hugefan following, also there is agreat deal of nostalgia attachedto her name, but no filmmakerin his right mind will pay her somuch. Another deterrent is thather comeback film Aaja Nachle(2007) had bombed.

It is learnt that the Ek Do Teengirl has quoted the fancy sum toat least four filmmakers whoapproached her with scripts andis in no mood to negotiate. Hermanager Rikku confirms, "Yes,Madhuri has asked for fivecrores. We feel she is definitelyworth the price she is quoting.She is a superstar with an envi-able fan following even today.So, why shouldn't she ask for

what she deserves? We are surethe filmmakers will gain fromthe fact that Madhuri Dixit ismaking a film with them."

However, the industry isn'treacting too kindly. Asks a tradeanalyst, "Who will giveMadhuri five crores now?Though she does have the fan

base, she isn't a top actress any-more. She has been out of theindustry and the kind of rolesshe can do are limited. Theroles that she has beenapproached to play are eithersister or mother characters,which she is not too keen toplay. She should learn fromAmitabh Bachchan. A super-star, who still has roles special-ly written for him, isn't demand-ing that his pay cheque matchthat of Aamir, Salman, Akshayor SRK. Madhuri needs a reali-ty check. In case someone has aparticular script in which onlyshe fits, perhaps she will get thehigh price."

Who’ll give 5 crore

to Madhuri?

LONDON: Copper eased onFriday as China took monetarytightening measures that couldaffect demand for industrialmetals, but a ceasefire in Libyaand a G7 intervention to calmmarket nerves helped boostrisk appetite.

Three-month copper on theLondon Metal Exchangeclosed at $9,510 a tonne, downfrom Thursday's close of$9,565.

China's central bank raisedlenders' required reserves forthe sixth time in a cycle ofmonetary tightening.

"This is definitely taking thesheen off the market," saidStandard Bank analyst StephenReece. "The fact that this is thesixth time that China's bankintervenes is more importantthan the fact that it is a 0.50point increase only."

But some said the impact ofChinese tightening measureswould be moderate in thelonger term.

"China is taking some mod-erate measures to cool downthe economy. This may have anegative impact in the nearterm, but we don't think it willderail China's growth in termsof base metals," Credit Suisseanalyst Stefan Graber said."China's metals demand willcontinue to grow robustly thisyear."

News that Libya declared a

ceasefire in the country tocomply with a United Nationsresolution passed overnightboosted market confidence.

"The ceasefire in Libya pro-vided some sort of support to

the market and certainly therehas been a lift," said DanielMajor, an analyst at RBS. "Inthe near term less militaryaction is always taken as posi-tive.

In Asia, traders citedrenewed Chinese buying.Investors have lamented a

dearth of buying by China asthe world's top copper con-sumer has dashed markethopes by not returning to themarket as expected after itsNew Year holiday in February.

Stocks of copper in LMEwarehouses last rose 850tonnes to 429,650 tonnes, datashowed.

"Large inflows in inventoriesin Shanghai clearly show thatthere is plenty of unreportedinventory of copper in China andoutside China," Major said."This indicates that maybe thecopper market is not as tight assome had previously thought."

Aluminium finished at$2,560 from $2,523 a tonne.LME stocks of the metal usedin transport and packaging lastfell 6,575 tonnes to 4,612,825tonnes, but a record-high

4,640,750 tonnes hit inJanuary 2010 remains withinreach. Lead, untraded in ringswas bid at $2,675 from$2,651 a tonne. Tin closed at$29,400 from $29,375 atonne. Zinc ended at $2,325from $2,333 a tonne. Nickelfinished at $26,750 from$25,925 a tonne. -Reuters

Copper eases on China's

tightening; eyes on Libya

9Saturday, March 19, 2011

POLYPROPYLENE(PP) LINEAR LOW (LL)

Cash & Settlement 1310 1255

December (3rd Wednesday) 1310 1260

January (3rd Wednesday) 1310 1260

LONDON METAL EXCHANGE (PLASTIC)

LME Official Prices, US$ per tonne for March 17 2011

LME Official Prices, US$ per tonne for March 17 2011

ALUMINIUM ALUMINIUM COPPER LEAD NICKEL TIN ZINC NASAAC

ALLOY

Cash buyer 2370 2475 9439 2688 25925 29275 2313 2480

Cash seller 2390 2475.5 9440 2690 25950 29300 2313.5 2480.5

3-months buyer 2350 2507 9450 2666 25925 29345 2336.5 2500

3-months seller 2370 2507.5 9455 2667 25930 29350 2337 2505

15-months buyer 2350 2588 9400 2607 25070 29220 2395 2550

15-months seller 2360 2593 9410 2612 25170 29270 2400 2560

27-months buyer 2350 2650 9100 2570 24170 2398 2605

27-months seller 2360 2655 9110 2575 24270 2403 2615

LONDON METAL EXCHANGE (METALS)

NEW YORK: Oil prices see-sawed on Friday in volatiletrading on uncertainty afterLibya's government said itwould halt military action tocomply with a UN resolutionauthorizing a no-fly zone andattacks on forces loyal toLibyan leader MuammarGaddafi.

Both Brentand US crudefutures pulledback several dol-lars and turnedlower afterLibya's govern-ment declared aunilateral cease-fire in its offensive againstrebels.

Uncertainty about the stabili-ty of any ceasefire limited theprice drop amid reports thatGaddafi's forces continued tofire at rebel-held towns.

Total US and Brent crudetrading volumes were heavy,

already surpassing 350,000lots, after prices jumped nearly4 per cent on Thursday in lightvolume as the market weighedthe potential impact of Libya'sconflict, Middle East tensionsand Japan's nuclear crisis.

Brent crude futures for Maydelivery fell 40 cents to

$114.50 a barrel by 1514 GMT,off an earlier $117.29 peak.

US crude futures for Aprildelivery fell 20 cents to$101.22 a barrel, off its high of$103.66, but having bouncedoff a $100.32 low.

"This does not mean we neara resolution of the situation in

Libya. We may be facing thepossibility of an entrenchedstatus quo between pro and antiGaddafi groups," said HarryTchilinguirian, analyst at BNPParibas.

"This only maintains theuncertainty in terms of whenwe will eventually have a full

resumption ofproduction inLibya."

L i b y a nauthorities mustcomply with allelements of theUnited Nationsresolution onthe end of hos-

tilities, UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon said at a newsconference in Madrid.

France said it remained cau-tious as the threat on theground in Libya had not beenlifted and Britain said Gaddafiwould be judged by his actionsrather than his words. -Reuters

Oil volatile on Libya

truce uncertainty

Arabicas,sugar upon MEasttensions

LONDON: Robusta coffeefutures eased from a freshthree-year high, while arabicacoffee, sugar and cocoa jumpedon investor buying on Friday,fanned by increased tensions inthe Middle East and NorthAfrica.

London second-month robus-ta coffee futures eased aftersurging to a new three-yearhigh of $2,672 per month basissecond-month on investor buy-ing, pressured by a shortage ofdeliverable supplies.

London second-month, Mayrobustas eased back from thepeak to stand at $2,608 pertonne, down $7 or 0.3 per cent,in moderate volume of 3,511lots at 1514 GMT.

ICE arabica futures rallied,underpinned by low globalstocks and a shortage of high-quality beans.

ICE May arabica coffee trad-ed up 4.25 cents or 1.6 per centat $2.7515 per lb at 1514 GMT,below the 34-year high of$2.9665 a lb touched last week.

ICE raw sugar futuresbounced above resistance at 27cents a lb, driven higher by thetensions in the Middle East andthe nuclear crisis in Japan.

ICE May raw sugar futurestraded up 0.67 cent or 2.5 percent at 27.41 cents a lb at 1515GMT, below last month's 30-yearhigh of 36.08 cents. London Maywhite sugar was up $18.60 or 2.7per cent at $704.80 per tonne inthin volume of 2,444 lots at 1516GMT. ICE cocoa futures edgedup as violence in top producerIvory Coast intensified. The con-flict has underpinned cocoafutures at near 32-year highs.

ICE May cocoa rose $22, or0.7 per cent, at $3,304 a tonneat 1518 GMT, below the 32-year peak hit earlier this monthof $3,775. London May cocoatraded down 4 pounds, or 0.2per cent, at 2,122 pounds atonne. -Reuters

National Commodity Exchange Ltd Trading SummaryDate Commodity Contract Price Open High Low Close Traded Volume Previous Current Open Interest

Date Quotation in lots Settlement Settlement in Lots

Price Price

18-Mar-2011 CRUDE100 MA11 US$ Per Barrel 99.96 103.64 99.76 103.14 437 102.93 103.14 58

18-Mar-2011 CRUDE100 AP11 US$ Per Barrel 100.76 104.50 100.70 104.13 250 103.86 104.13 42

18-Mar-2011 CRUDE100 MY11 US$ Per Barrel 101.55 104.78 101.55 104.78 - 104.47 104.78 -

18-Mar-2011 SILVER - SL500 AP11 US$ Per Troy Ounce 34.49 35.09 34.12 35.09 420 34.72 35.09 47

18-Mar-2011 SILVER - SL500 MY11 US$ Per Troy Ounce 34.31 35.10 34.30 35.10 31 34.72 35.10 10

18-Mar-2011 GOLD 01oz AP11 US$ Per Troy Ounce 1402.70 1419.00 1397.00 1419.00 703 1409.40 1419.00 907

18-Mar-2011 GOLD 01oz MY11 US$ Per Troy Ounce 1404.10 1419.90 1398.10 1419.70 1,317 1410.10 1419.70 1,514

18-Mar-2011 GOLD 01oz JU11 US$ Per Troy Ounce 1404.10 1420.50 1398.80 1420.30 1,390 1410.70 1420.30 868

18-Mar-2011 GOLD 100oz AP11 US$ Per Troy Ounce 1401.00 1419.00 1401.00 1419.00 4 1409.40 1419.00 7

18-Mar-2011 GOLD 100oz MY11 US$ Per Troy Ounce 1404.00 1419.70 1404.00 1419.70 - 1410.10 1419.70 -

18-Mar-2011 GOLD 100oz JU11 US$ Per Troy Ounce 1405.00 1420.60 1403.00 1419.70 21 1410.70 1420.30 3

18-Mar-2011 GOLD AP11 Per 10 grms 38625.00 39001.00 38584.00 39001.00 27 38749.00 39001.00 95

18-Mar-2011 GOLD MY11 Per 10 grms 38594.00 39011.00 38594.00 39011.00 - 38759.00 39011.00 -

18-Mar-2011 GOLD JU11 Per 10 grms 38611.00 39028.00 38611.00 39028.00 - 38775.00 39028.00 -

18-Mar-2011 KILOGOLD AP11 Per 10 grms 38666.00 38974.00 38557.00 38974.00 1 38722.00 38974.00 -

18-Mar-2011 KILOGOLD MY11 Per 10 grms 38567.00 38984.00 38567.00 38984.00 - 38731.00 38984.00 -

18-Mar-2011 TOLAGOLD50 AP11 Per Tola 44972.00 45458.00 44972.00 45458.00 - 45164.00 45458.00 -

18-Mar-2011 TOLAGOLD100 AP11 Per Tola 44972.00 45458.00 44972.00 45458.00 - 45164.00 45458.00 -

18-Mar-2011 MINIGOLD MON Per 10 grms 39630.00 40037.00 39630.00 40037.00 - 39782.00 40037.00 -

18-Mar-2011 MINIGOLD TUE Per 10 grms 39673.00 40081.00 39673.00 40081.00 - 39826.00 40081.00 -

18-Mar-2011 MINIGOLD WED Per 10 grms 39688.00 40096.00 39688.00 40096.00 - 39840.00 40096.00 -

18-Mar-2011 MINIGOLD THU Per 10 grms 39703.00 40111.00 39703.00 40111.00 - 39855.00 40111.00 -

18-Mar-2011 MINIGOLD FRI Per 10 grms 39615.00 40126.00 39615.00 40126.00 - 39870.00 40126.00 -

18-Mar-2011 TOLAGOLD MON Per Tola 46107.00 46700.00 45561.00 46036.00 7 45738.00 46036.00 10

18-Mar-2011 TOLAGOLD TUE Per Tola 46216.00 46596.00 45611.00 46087.00 9 45789.00 46087.00 33

18-Mar-2011 TOLAGOLD WED Per Tola 45628.00 46104.00 45628.00 46104.00 - 45806.00 46104.00 -

18-Mar-2011 TOLAGOLD THU Per Tola 45644.00 46121.00 45644.00 46121.00 - 45822.00 46121.00 -

18-Mar-2011 TOLAGOLD FRI Per Tola 46591.00 46695.00 45544.00 46138.00 3 45839.00 46138.00 3

18-Mar-2011 IRRI6W 17MA11 Per 100 kg 3323.00 3330.00 3323.00 3330.00 - 3323.00 3330.00 -

18-Mar-2011 RICEIRRI - 6 MA11 Per 100 kg 3358.00 3358.00 3357.00 3357.00 - 3358.00 3357.00 -

18-Mar-2011 RBD PALMOLEIN MA11 Per Maund 5256.00 5355.00 5256.00 5355.00 - 5256.00 5355.00 -

18-Mar-2011 KIBOR3M 11-Mar Per Rs. 100 86.42 86.45 86.42 86.45 - 86.42 86.45 -

18-Mar-2011 KIBOR3M 11-Jun Per Rs. 100 85.93 85.94 85.93 85.94 - 85.93 85.94 -

Note: Traded Volume reflects the trades from 06:00 pm of previous day to 06:00 pm of current day

Tokyo rubber

extends gainsBANGKOK: Tokyo rubberfutures ended 3 per cent higheron Friday due to supply con-cerns after Thai moves to haltexports, supported by firmercrude oil prices.

But prices came off theirhighs after the benchmarkfailed to test resistance at 430yen and some operators sold toreduce risk over the weekend.

The benchmark rubber con-tract on the Tokyo CommodityExchange for August deliveryrose 11.7 yen, or 3 per cent, tosettle at 408.6 yen ($5.05) perkg. It went as high as 425.5yen, the highest since March10, the day before the devastat-ing earthquake in Japan.

TOCOM rubber hit a recordhigh in mid-February but beganto fall in early March due tounrest in the Middle East.

The most active Shanghairubber contract for May deliv-ery rose 1,000 yuan to settle at35,335 yuan ($5,377) pertonne.

Dealers said TOCOM pricesshould stay at firm levels, sup-ported by limited supply due toa slowdown in exports fromThailand. -Reuters

VIETNAM: A farmer walks in a coffee field, as flowers bloom in Vietnam's central highland Di

Linh district. -Reuters

LONDON: Gold rose on Fridayon lingering concerns about theeconomy and oil prices despiteLibya's announcement of aceasefire, while investors lookedto an intervention in the yen as amove that could calm markets.

Bullion remained underpinnedby market uncertainty as Francesaid it was still cautious aboutthe ceasefire, and with Britain onFriday preparing warplanes for

action.Gold was at $1,420.10 an

ounce at 1536 GMT from$1,402.40 late in New York onThursday. Earlier the metal waslittle changed after China's cen-tral bank raised lenders' requiredreserves by 50 basis points.

The metal earlier hit a sessionhigh of $1,423.70 an ounce, sup-ported by the UN's approval ofmilitary action to containGaddafi, while unrest in Bahrainand Yemen has also unnervedinvestors.

"If that (the ceasefire) actuallystands and is sustained, then con-cerns soften in regard to thewider implications for the wholeregion," said Carl Firman, ananalyst at Virtual Metals.

"If the MENA (Middle Eastand North Africa) region sta-bilises ... we'll see confidencereturn," he added.

Also curbing investors' flight

to gold as a safe haven frominflationary pressures, Brentcrude oil prices reversed earliergains to trade below $115 anounce after the ceasefireannouncement.

US investment bank GoldmanSachs forecast, however, goldprices would rally to a new highof $1,480 an ounce in threemonths on declining US realinterest rates. Gold hit a record

$1,444.40 on March 7.Japan's battle with a nuclear

crisis after Friday's earthquakeand tsunami has also shakenconfidence in global markets thisweek.

In the wake of the crisis, Japanbought billions of dollars torestrain a soaring yen, andtraders reported intervention byEuropean central banks, kickingoff joint action by the world'srichest nations to calm markets.

"When everything turns intorisk (aversion) mode, no onestays clear of that and the samething happened for precious met-als," Hansen said.

Joining the rally, spot silverwas at $35.04 an ounce from$34.18, but it came off a sessionhigh of $35.36.

Platinum was at $1,714.99 anounce from $1,697.49 and palla-dium traded at $729.00 an ouncefrom $704.50. -Reuters

Gold gains, supported

by Libya crisis

NEW YORK: US cottonfutures finished up by theirdaily limit on Thursday ascommercial and trade buyinglifted the market off the previ-ous session's three-week low.

With the weekend comingup, dealers said players wouldbe keeping a wary eye onJapan's nuclear crisis.

The key May cotton contracton ICE Futures US rose by the7-cent limit to close at $1.9212per lb, with the session low at$1.85. Open interest, an indica-tor of investment exposure,

totaled 173,403 lots as ofMarch 16, still near the lowestsince late July 2010, data fromICE Futures US showed.

Volume traded stood at17,600 lots, over 50 per centbelow the 30-day norm,Thomson Reuters preliminarydata showed.

'The outside markets tookcotton right up,' said MikeStevens, an independent ana-lyst in Louisiana.

He said the market receivedan initial boost from firmerChinese cotton prices, with the

September cotton contract onthe Zhengzhou CommodityExchange last done at 29,535yuan per tonne, up 545 yuan.

The upbeat tone of outsidemarkets aside, cotton playerssaid they would be digestinghow badly the situation inJapan eventually hits cottondemand. 'There will be somehesitation in taking an aggres-sive position in most marketsgoing into the weekend becausethere is a degree of uncertaintyabout what may happen inJapan,' a dealer said. -Reuters

American cotton closes up,

rebounds from 3-wk low

European

vegetable

oil pricesROTTERDAM: The follow-ing were the Friday'sRotterdam vegetable oil price'sat 22:00 PST.

SOYOIL: EU degummedeuro tonne fob exmill Mar11915.00+15.00, Apr11918.00+15.00, May11/Jul11921.00+15.00.

RAPEOIL: Dutch/EU eurotonne fob exmill May11/Jul111000.00+20.00, Aug11/Oct11945.00+20.00, Nov11/Jan12950.00+20.00, Feb12/Apr12955.00+20.00.

SUNOIL: EU dlrs tonneextank six ports optionApr11/Jun11 1385.00+35.00,Jul11/Sep11 1385.00+35.00,Oct11/Dec11 1345.00+35.00.

LINOIL: Any origin dlrstonne extank RotterdamApr11/May11 1505.00+0.00.

CRUDE PALM OIL:Sumatra/Malaysia slrs optiondlrs tonne cif R'dam Afloat1180.00, Mar11 1180.00,Apr11 1180.00, May11/Jun111180.00+30.00, Jul11/Sep111170.00+30.00, Oct11/Dec111160.00+30.00.

PALM OLEIN: RBD dlrstonne fob MalaysiaMay11/Jun11 1190.00+27.50,Jul11/Sep11 1155.00+20.00,Oct11/Dec11 1145.00+22.50.

COCONUT OIL: Phil/Indondlrs tonne cif Rotterdam Mar111980.00, Apr11/May111950.00+80.00, May11/Jun111920.00+70.00, Jun11/July111900.00.

CASTOROIL: Any origindlrs tonne extank RotterdamMay11/Jun11 2695.00+0.00. -Reuters

JAKARTA: Malaysian palmoil futures rose more than 3per cent on Friday, as physi-cal buying and investor fearseased over the impact of thenuclear crisis in quake-hitJapan.

The benchmark May 2011crude palm oil contract onBursa Malaysia Derivativesclosed up 3.2 per cent at3,446 Malaysian ringgit($1,128) a tonne, off an earli-er high of 3,450 ringgit.

Volatile prices of the veg-etable oil, used in productssuch as food, cosmetics, tyresand biofuels, hit a near four-month low of 3,250 onTuesday but have gainedmore than 2 per cent thisweek.

"There is a lot of activity inthe physical market -- bar-gain hunting is going on,"said one dealer. "Externalmarkets are a lot better than afew days ago."

"Concern about Japan issubsiding," he added. "This

week, the downside was a bitoverdone, as the Japan situa-tion does not affect palm oilconsumption too much."

Traded volume on theMalaysian benchmark stoodat 10,488 lots of 25 tonneseach, compared with 12,847lots on Thursday.

ICDX's May CPO futurescontract was at 10,125 rupiahper kg, compared to 9,870rupiah per kg when it opened.Market volume was 222 lotsof 10 tonnes each.

In comparable vegetable oilmarkets, the most-activeSeptember 2011 soyoil on theDalian CommodityExchange traded at 9,982yuan versus 9,970 yuan at theopen.

Palm oil is seen heading forrecord highs in 2011 onexpectations for costly crudeoil to bolster biodieseldemand and offset better har-vests, participants at a con-ference in Malaysia said thismonth. -Reuters

Palm climbs over 3pc

on easing Japan worries

Indian sugar

declinesMUMBAI: Spot prices ofsugar in India fell on Fridayafter two days of gain due tohigher supplies coupled withlower demand, traders anddealers.

"Demand is yet to pick upand supply is more thandemand. Besides this, summerin north India is also delayed,"said Ashok jain, president,Bombay Sugar MerchantAssociation.

Demand for the sweetenerfrom makers of ice-cream andcold-drinks typically goes upduring the summer.

In Kolhapur, a key market intop producing Maharashtrastate, the most traded S-varietyclosed flat at 2,695 rupees($59.8) per 100 kg.

Sugar contract for Aprildelivery on India's NationalCommodity and DerivativesExchange (NCDEX) closedlower by 0.96 per cent at 2,785rupees per 100 kg. "Traders andmillers were expecting the gov-ernment decision on export ofsugar but that didn't happenedand it also added to sentiment,"said Jain. -Reuters

Shanghai copper ralliesShanghai copper was hold-

ing onto near 3 per cent gainssecured earlier on Friday,helped by renewed Chinesebuying that eased the impactof panic caused by Japan'searthquake and nuclear crisis,and catching up withThursday's London rises.

Shanghai's most-active cop-per futures contract rose bynearly 3 per cent at 71,820yuan a tonne, on course for a3.6 per cent gain from a weekearlier, while zinc rallied 2.9per cent at 18,310 yuan atonne.

France, Britain cautious about ceasefire announcement

Saturday, March 19, 2011

BCCI trashesreports ofSrikkanth,Dhoni meet

NEW DELHI: The IndianCricket Board (BCCI) onFriday rubbished reports thatChairman of selector KSrikkanth and skipperMahendra Singh Dhoni wereinvolved in a heated debate overteam selection during a meetingin Chennai.

Media reports had claimedthat Srikkanth met Dhoni to talkabout the playing XI and thetwo exchanged heated wordsdue to difference of opinion butBCCI said no such meetingtook place.

The reports had also said thatsecretary N Srinivasan was alsopresent at the meeting. "This iswith reference to reports insome newspapers about a`meeting` having taken placebetween the Indian captain andChairman of Selectors inChennai on Thursday, at whichthe BCCI Secretary was alsopresent.

"Apparently some `harsh`words were exchanged, and thecaptain `urged` to change theplaying XI. The BCCI wouldlike to clarify that these reportsare baseless. No such meetingtook place," Srinivasan said in arelease.

Dhoni has been facing criti-cism for some of his decisionsin the ongoing World Cup, themost prominent being his pref-erence for Piyush Chawla in theXI despite a flop show from theleg-spinner. -Online

Tendulkareyes ton

of tons ingroup finale

CHENNAI: Sachin Tendulkarcan complete another landmarkon Sunday by hitting his 100thinternational hundred as Indiatackle West Indies in the WorldCup's final group match.

Both sides have yet to makesure of their quarter-finalplaces, although the qualifyingpicture from Group B willbecome a lot clearer after SouthAfrica, who are alreadythrough, face hopefulsBangladesh in Dhaka onSaturday.

As well as the qualificationpicture, most of the 38,000 fansat the Chidambaram Stadiumwill be anticipating Tendulkar's100th international hundred.

The India star moved to 99centuries (51 in Tests and 48 inone-day internationals) with amajestic innings of 111 in hisside's previous group matchagainst South Africa.

However, even a 'Sachin spe-cial' was not enough to preventa three-wicket defeat by SouthAfrica where India, on a beltingbatting pitch in Nagpur, con-trived to lose their last ninewickets for just 29 runs as theyslumped from 267 for one to296 all out.

"When you hit those bigshots, you tend to forget thatyou are playing for the countryand not for the crowd," Indiacaptain Mahendra Singh Dhonisaid. Runs are set to be harder tocome by in Chennai, where nobatsman managed a fifty on atypically bowler-friendly pitchduring England's nailbiting 18-run win over the West Indies onThursday. The good news forIndia is that West Indies have noequivalent of Proteas' fastbowler Dale Steyn. But theirbatsmen, who will be expectedto bat far more sensibly in thepowerplay after collectivelylosing their heads against SouthAfrica, will do well not tounder-estimate a youthfulWindies attack that troubledEngland. Leg-spinner DevendraBishoo took three wickets onhis one-day international debutwhile lively seamer AndreRussell almost produced amatch-winning all-round per-formance with four wickets anda dashing 49. -Online

Most Runs

Players Mat Runs HS Ave SR

Sangakkara(SL) 6 363 111 121.00 88.75

Trott(Eng) 6 336 92 56.00 82.55

Strauss(Eng) 6 329 158 54.83 97.33

Most Wickets

Players Mat Wkts BBI Ave Econ

Shahid Afridi(Pak) 5 16 5/16 10.06 3.50

Tim Southee(NZ) 6 14 3/13 15.07 3.95

Kemar Roach(WI) 5 13 6/27 12.00 3.8

RECORD BOARD

10

GROUP A

Teams Mat Won Lost Tied N/R Pts Net RR

GROUP B

Teams Mat Won Lost Tied N/R Pts Net RR

Sri Lanka 6 4 1 0 1 9 2.582

Australia 5 4 0 0 1 9 1.693

New Zealand 6 4 1 0 0 8 1.135

Pakistan 5 4 1 0 0 8 0.729

Zimbabwe 5 1 4 0 0 2 -0.669

Canada 6 1 5 0 0 2 -1.987

Kenya 5 0 5 0 0 0 -3.005

South Africa 5 4 1 0 0 8 1.606

India 5 3 1 1 0 7 0.768

England 6 3 2 1 0 7 0.072

West Indies 5 3 2 0 0 6 1.65

Bangladesh 5 3 2 0 0 6 -0.765

Ireland 6 1 4 0 0 4 -0.696

Netherlands 6 0 6 0 0 0 -2.045

Niall O'Brien is watched by Netherland wicketkeeper AtseBuurman as he runs between the wickets in WC 2011

COLOMBO: Pakistan cap-tain Shahid Afridi swattedaway suggestions that pacebowler Shoaib Akhtar hadcome to blows with KamranAkmal after the wicketkeeperdropped catches off him intheir World Cup match againstNew Zealand.

Media reports in Pakistansaid Shoaib had angrilykicked his team mate afterAkmal dropped Ross Taylortwice in the space of threedeliveries in a Group A match10 days ago.

Taylor went on to score a

whirlwind 131 not out as NewZealand thrashed Pakistan by110 runs.

"Nothing happened betweenShoaib Akhtar and KamranAkmal. Nothing serious,"Afridi told reporters inColombo before trying toswitch the topic of conversa-tion to their final round-robinmatch against championsAustralia on Saturday.

Not satisfied with the skip-per's answer, another journal-ist tried to quiz Afridi further.

"I don't want to give you anybreaking news," Afridi added

as his final word on the sub-ject.

The 35-year-old Shoaib,who said on Thursday that hewould retire from internation-al cricket following the WorldCup, was overlooked forPakistan's last match againstZimbabwe and Afridi refusedto confirm whether he wouldreturn for Saturday's clashwith Australia.

"If we need him we will def-initely give him a chance," hesaid. "I think he is enjoyinghimself whether he is playingor not." -Reuters

Kamran, Shoaib are cool: skipper

MUMBAI: New Zealand bowler Nathan McCullum celebrates with teammates BrendonMcCullum , Tim Southee and Martin Guptill after taking a catch off Sri

Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene in World Cup 2011 tournament.-Reuters

KOLKATA: All-rounder PaulStirling cracked a 72-ball 101as Ireland completed theirWorld Cup campaign on a win-ning note despite their groupstage exit with a six-wicketwin over Netherlands onFriday.

The Dutch had posted a com-petitive 306 from their 50overs on the back chiefly of106 from Ryan ten Doeschateand 84 from skipper PeterBorren.

But their innings dramatical-ly ran out of steam with theirlast four wickets falling in suc-cessive balls, all from run-outs,as they chased valuable extraruns in the final over fromKevin O'Brien.

From early in the Irishinnings it was clear that theDutch total would probably befound wanting on a batsman'sdelight of a wicket.

Stirling and captain WilliamPorterfield (68) put on 177 forthe first wicket and all theirbatsmen went on to make use-ful contributions before KevinO'Brien lofted a huge six overlong-off to overhaul the Dutch

total with 14 balls to spare.Stirling won man-of-the-

match honours but was sobadly stricken with crampafterwards he was unable toleave the dressing room to col-lect his prize.

Porterfield accepted it forhim and reflected on a cam-paign which had promisedmuch for his team, especiallyafter a shock win over Englandin Bangalore on March 2.

Losing to Bangladesh in theirfirst game on Feb. 25, howev-er, had proved a fatal blow.

"We are pretty happy withthe way we've played and whatwe've done in preparation.We've gone out there and expe-rienced a lot of stuff," he said.

"We're slightly disappointedwith a couple of games there,we're confident that on anotherday we could have got throughthem and got another twowins." His opposite numberBorren had the consolation of afew cricket lessons learnedrather a victory from the tour-nament. "These experiencesfor us we'll never forget butalso we've learned an awful

lot," he said."We've learned again today

that on these kind of wickets ifyou don't get it quite right withthe ball you'll go for plenty ofruns. It was a low point for theconsistently impressive tenDoeschate to finish his WorldCup campaign as he joined aselect band to score his secondcentury at this World Cup.

The powerful Dutchmanslammed a superb 106, includ-ing 13 fours and a six, to joinSouth African AB De Villiersand India's Sachin Tendulkaras the only players so far toscore two hundreds in thistournament.

The Dutch had gone into thematch without a win from theirprevious five matches but aftera dreadful start in which theylost Eric Szwarczynski (1) andTom Cooper (5) with only 12on the board, ten Doeschaterebuilt their innings.

After he departed, caught byJohn Mooney off spinnerStirling, Borren carried on theassault on the Irish bowlerswith 84, including 10 fours off82 balls. -Reuters

Ireland call it a WCon a ‘note to remember’

COLOMBO: Pakistan cap-tain Shahid Afridi has vowedto unleash a surprise assaulton defending championsAustralia in their eagerly-anticipated World Cup GroupA clash on Saturday.

Both teams have a chanceto top the group and face arelatively weaker team fromGroup B in their quarter-finals, with Pakistan on eightpoints from five matches andAustralia nine from five.

Depending on the finishingpositions, Pakistan couldeven end up facing arch-rivals India in Ahmedabad inthe quarter-finals.

But Afridi refused to bedrawn in the possible permu-tations, saying he has a defi-nite plan to beat Australiawho are on an unbeaten 34-match World Cup streakstretching back to 1999.

"We have made some plansagainst them because they arevery strong mentally andphysically, so you will see inthe game we will do some-thing new against theseguys," said Afridi on Friday.

"We know that this game isvery important for us to end

in a good position in thegroup. If we win, we will gointo quarters with a win and agood, positive attitude, whichis more important," saidAfridi.

Pakistan were the last teamto beat Australia in a WorldCup match, their 10-run wincoming in the 1999 tourna-ment at Leeds.

Afridi admitted Australiawas a strong team.

"They are very profession-al, they are a good batting andbowling side as well. Theyknow how to bowl reverse

swing, especially when BrettLee comes back and ShaunTait as well.

"They know how to usethese condition as well. Butwe know our strengths too,we know how to tackle anddeal with these guys so weare well-prepared," addedAfridi, the leading wicket-taker in the tournament with16.

Afridi hinted Pakistanmight bring in Umar Akmal,who has recovered from a fin-ger injury which forced himto miss the team's last matchagainst Zimbabwe, in placeof misfiring opener AhmedShahzad.

Shahzad has managed just51 runs in five innings.

"We have a settled combi-nation, but we can make onechange. Umar is available forselection as he has recoveredfrom injury," said Afridi, whowould not be drawn onwhether retiring pacemanShoaib Akhtar would play.

Akhtar on Thursdayannounced he will retire frominternational cricket after theWorld Cup. -APP

Got a surprise upmy sleeve: Afridi

ICC cricket WC match against Aussies

DHAKA: Bangladesh will notbe easily pushed aside whenthey take on powerful SouthAfrica in a must-win WorldCup match on Saturday, skip-per Shakib Al Hasan said.

"We go into the match aftertwo consecutive wins againstEngland and the Netherlands,so the confidence and moraleof the team is high," Shakibsaid ahead of the day match atthe Sher-e-Bangla stadium.

"If we stick to our plans andexecute them well, I think wehave a very good chance tobeat South Africa.

"They are obviously a verystrong team, but we won't befound wanting."

England's dramatic win overthe West Indies in Chennai onThursday ruined Bangladesh'shopes of easing into the knock-out rounds without having tocontend with South Africa'sfirepower.

They now face a make-or-break battle to determine theirfuture in the tournament in

front of 25,000 fanatical sup-porters inside the stadium inDhaka and millions outside it.

South Africa are the onlyteam in Group B to have quali-fied for the quarter-finals, withfour others -- India, WestIndies, Bangladesh andEngland -- vying for theremaining three berths over theweekend. Bangladesh are tiedwith the West Indies on sixpoints, India and England areon seven each and group lead-ers South Africa are on eight.

If Bangladesh lose to SouthAfrica, their poor net run-rate(currently -0.765) will almostcertainly lead to their exit,unless India defeat the WestIndies by a huge margin inChennai on Sunday.

Shakib appeared irritatedwhen asked repeatedly bydemanding Bangladeshireporters about his strategy forSaturday's game.

"The plan is simple," he said."If we bat first we must put upa good score and then restrict

them for a lower total. "If wefield first, we will have to scoreone run more than what theyput up."

Unlike millions ofBangladeshi supporters, whostayed up late on Thursdaynight cheering for the WestIndies against England, Shakibsaid he preferred to watch aBollywood movie.

"I watched (Chris) Gayle'sbatting and then switched tothe movie," he said. "As far asI am concerned we have to wintomorrow if we want to quali-fy." Shakib said it was not easyto get huge totals onBangladeshi wickets.

"So far only (Virender)Sehwag and (Virat) Kohli havegot hundreds in the five match-es we have played," the captainsaid.

"Our wickets are slower thanwhat you get in India and it isnot so easy for batting. So I ampleased that we have battedwell enough to win threematches." -Online

BD tigers honingteeth for SA lions

SL on top of

group with

112-run win

over KiwisMUMBAI: Sri Lankawarmed up in style for theWorld Cup quarter-finals witha thumping 112-run victoryover New Zealand in theirfinal Group A match onFriday at the WankhedeStadium.

The win catapulted the co-hosts, who were playing awayfrom home for the first time inthe tournament, to the top ofthe group but their final posi-tion will be determined onlyafter Saturday's matchbetween Australia andPakistan.

Captain Kumar Sangakkara(111) scored his maidenWorld Cup century to rescuehis team after some early jit-ters and set New Zealand a266-run target.

But the Sri Lankan spinners,led by the wily MuttiahMuralitharan (4-25), neverallowed the New Zealandbatsmen to stage a fittingreply and skittled them for153 in 35 overs. -Reuters

11Saturday, March 19, 2011

International & Continuation

CONTINUATION

BEIJING: China raised banks'required reserves again in adecision on Friday, the latestinstallment in its monetarytightening cycle that many hadthought would be put on holdafter Japan's devastating earth-quake.

Its persistance with a cam-paign to rein in prices that hascooled hopes for the scale ofworld growth showed that thePeople's Bank of China viewsinflation, not an economicslowdown resulting fromJapan's disaster, as the biggerrisk.

China's announcement camejust hours after the Group ofSeven rich nations said theywould jointly intervene to calmmarkets unnerved by Japan'snuclear crisis and to rein in therising yen.

The 50-basis-point increasein required reserves was thethird this year and lifts themandatory ratio for the coun-try's biggest banks to a record20.0 percent.

The increase in reserves willlock up about 350 billion yuan($53 billion) of cash that bankswould otherwise have beenable to lend in the world's sec-ond largest economy, making itan important tool for slowingmoney growth and dampeninginflation.

"It's clear evidence that tight-ening is still on," said StephenGreen, an economist withStandard Chartered inShanghai.

"An interest rate rise in thesecircumstances (following theearthquake) is difficult, but itlooks like they're dealing withliquidity again," he said.

While markets have longexpected more tightening byChina, the timing of the movewas surprising after severalprominent economists predict-

ed this week that the centralbank would wait to gauge theimpact of Japan's earthquakeand tsunami.

Japan bought billions of dol-lars in the market on Fridayfollowed by other centralbanks, kicking off a rare roundof concerted intervention bythe G7 nations seeking to mod-erate the impact on markets ofJapan's nuclear disaster.

A source told Reuters Japanwould leave the yen it sold dur-ing intervention in the bankingsystem rather than mopping itup, adding to the ample liquid-ity in the system -- which couldrun the risk of boosting infla-tion.

Juxtaposed against that,China's decision to mop upmore funds gave a clear idea ofthe central bank's priorities.

"This move ... is another signthat the tragic events in Japanare unlikely to have a signifi-cant impact on policy decisionselsewhere in Asia," said BrianJackson, economist with RoyalBank of Canada in HongKong.

"This decision clearly indi-cates that curbing price pres-sures is the key economic pri-ority for Beijing right now."

European stocks and copperprices dipped after the reserveratio increase, but market reac-tion was otherwise muted withmany risky assets holdingsteady.

Chinese consumer priceinflation was unchanged fromJanuary at 4.9 percent inFebruary and it is likely to tickup in the coming monthsbecause of a lower base ofcomparison.

China's top leaders havedeclared that their mostimportant task this year is tocontrol inflation. So far, com-plaints about rising prices

have amounted to little morethan grumbles, but seriousinflation has sparked socialunrest in China in the past.

To meet the official goal ofkeeping inflation to a 4 per-cent average this year, thegovernment has raised interestrates three times and banks'reserve requirements six timessince October, while alsousing a series of direct con-trols to cap price rises.

There are signs that the gov-ernment has started to makeprogress. The central bank onMonday reported sharplylower bank lending growthlast month, which will helpreduce inflationary pressure.

"Companies are finding itdifficult to get money from thebanks. So I think there is avery aggressive monetary pol-icy tightening in China. That'sthe main story, so inflationshould start to come down,"said Paul Cavey, economistwith Macquarie Securities inHong Kong.

In a short statement postedon its website, the People'sBank of China said theincrease will be effectiveMarch 25.

The required reserveincrease announced on Fridaywas also seen as surprisingagainst a background ofapparently weaker capitalinflows. Excess cash stem-ming from China's vast tradesurplus has been a root causeof the country's run-up inprices, but it had a combinedtrade deficit of $890 million inthe first two months of theyear.

What's more, aggressiveopen market operations by thecentral bank had led people tobelieve that it could afford todelay its next does of tighten-ing.-Reuters

China tighteningmarches on with

6th reserve rate riseMany had expected tightening pause after Japan disaster

TOKYO/NEW YORK: Japan bought billionsof dollars to restrain a soaring yen on Friday,backed by action from European central banksas the world's richest nations moved to calmmarkets made nervous by Japan's nuclear crisis.

The moves are the first joint intervention incurrency markets by the Group of Seven lead-ing powers since they came to the aid of thenewly launched euro in 2000, and signal theweight of concern about the wider impact ofevents in Japan.

The U.S. dollar surged two full yen to asmuch as 81.98 yen in response, up from a recordlow of 76.25 hit on Thursday, with traders esti-mating the Bank of Japan bought more than $25billion.

A series of European central banks confirmedthey were intervening and stock markets surged,although dealers said the initial intervention hadbeen much smaller in scale than the Bank ofJapan's and the impact in European time wasmore limited.

Ahead of North American market openings,the Federal Reserve and Bank of Canada con-firmed that they had joined the intervention aswell -- a show of resolve to market participantsthat the whole G7 was solidly behind Japan.

No figures were available for how much theymay have committed but analysts said the pointwas to show unity.

"It's going to have a very huge resonatingeffect on the market," said Kathy Lien, directorof currency research at GFT in New York.

"Because the only type of intervention thatactually works is coordinated intervention andit shows the solidarity of all central banks interms of the severity of the situation in Japan."The decision by the G7 came as a surprise tomany because Tokyo had indicated it waslooking only for moral support for its attemptsto assuage markets rather than joint action.

Japan's Nikkei share index climbed close to

3 percent, recouping some of the week's sting-ing losses as Japan reeled from an earthquake,tsunami and the nuclear power plant crisis.The market's losses for the week are 10 per-cent.

A source told Reuters the BOJ would alsoleave the yen it sold in the banking systemrather than mopping it up, thus adding to thevast amount of liquidity it had already provid-ed to support its domestic markets.

Central banks will often issue bonds to soakup any extra cash in the economy that resultsfrom currency intervention for fear that theadditional liquidity could fuel inflation.

G7 financial leaders may be worried that asurge in yen repatriation could create a crisisof confidence in markets already struggling inthe face of Europe's debt problems and theimpact of unrest in the Middle East.

President Barack Obama underlined theconcern in Washington by saying on Thursdaythe United States would do all it can to helpJapan recover while playing down fears adrifting cloud of radiation could reach theU.S. West Coast.

Japan's triple disaster, unprecedented in amajor developed economy, is already disrupt-ing global manufacturing.

Makers of equipment for mobile telephonesto car makers and chipmakers have warned ofa squeeze on their businesses given Japan'scrucial role in many supply chains that keepglobal commerce ticking over.

"I think the world economy is going to goright down, and it has happened at a timewhen financial markets are still fragile," said aG7 central banker who declined to be named.

The yen's surge this week was driven byspeculation that Japanese firms would repatri-ate some of their huge foreign assets to helpmeet insurance claims and pay for reconstruc-tion.-Reuters

Central banks move to weaken

yen, calm marketsG7 surprises by pledging joint intervention to weaken yen

OTTAWA: Inflation in Canadaeased in February, bucking thetrend in many other countriesand removing some pressurefrom the Bank of Canada tostart raising interest rates againsoon.

Statistics Canada said onFriday that core inflation,which excludes gasoline andother volatile items, slipped to0.9 percent year-on-year inFebruary. That was the lowestlevel since Statscan beganrecording 12-month rates inJanuary 1985 and is explainedmainly by a plunge in hotelrates compared with February2010, when they spiked duringthe Winter Olympics inVancouver.

Overall consumer prices rose0.3 percent in the month, thesame increase as the previousmonth, for a 2.2 percent annualinflation rate. That was downfrom 2.3 percent in Januaryand just below the consensusforecast of 2.3 percent.

The docile price environmentgives the central bank morereason to stay put on rates fornow, but analysts said strongdomestic growth and anexpected easing of global ten-sions will eventually pressureprices and prompt a rateincrease this year.

"I think that this is one month

of low inflation at the coremeasure. It doesn't change theworld as we see it," said DawnDesjardins, assistant chiefeconomist at Royal Bank ofCanada.

"So we still think the bankwill be back in rate-hike modein the months ahead, but notApril," she said.

The Bank of Canada, whichtargets 2 percent inflation, haskept its benchmark rate on holdat 1.0 percent since September,pending more evidence of asustained recovery.

Market players are divided intheir views on the timing of thenext hike. A Reuters poll inFebruary showed they thoughtMay 31 was the most likelybet, and that the bank wasunlikely to move at its nextdecision date on April 12.

"If the bank is worried aboutglobal economic growth, (theinflation data) gives them ascope to pause," said SherylKing, chief economist inCanada at Banc of AmericaMerrill Lynch.

"Rates are going to continueto rise. They may not rise asaggressively as I expected,"she said, adding that "markets(are) still probably underesti-mating how much policy nor-malization the bank has to do."

The Canadian dollar was lit-

tle changed after the inflationdata, holding at aroundC$0.9828 to the U.S. dollar, or$1.0175, while bond pricesfirmed.

Overnight index swaps,which trade based on expecta-tions for the key central bankrate, showed traders havescaled back their bets for Bankof Canada rate hikes in thecoming months. The Reuterscalculation of the swaps showstraders see a 96.8 percentchance the bank will hold ratessteady on April 12.

Gasoline and restaurant foodcosts were the biggest contrib-utors to inflation in the year toFebruary. They were partiallyoffset by a sharp drop in travel-er accommodation

The drop in hotel ratesalong with lower passengervehicle prices explained theweak core inflation rate,Statscan said.

Large gains in food andenergy costs have propelledglobal inflation rates higher forthe past few months.

The Canadian figures con-trast with data showing U.S.consumer prices increased attheir fastest pace in more than1-1/2 years in February andeuro zone inflation jumpedwell above the EuropeanCentral Bank's target. -Reuters

Canada inflation

cooling off; no

rate hike pressure

Europe trade

deficit

widens

in JanuaryBRUSSELS: Countriesusing the euro reported awider trade deficit inJanuary than a year earlieralthough trading activitycontinued to grow, accord-ing to figures published onFriday.

The European Union's sta-tistics office Eurostat saidthe 17 countries using theeuro had a trade deficit of14.8 billion euros ($20.7 bil-lion) in January as importsoutweighed exports, com-pared with a comparativegap of 9.7 billion euros ayear earlier and 0.5 billionin December.

A Reuters poll of econo-mists had forecast a deficitof -11.5 billion euros.

The data showed a 27 per-cent growth in exports byeuro zone countries, coun-terbalanced by an evenstronger jump in imports of29 percent.

The European Union as awhole recorded its strongestincreases in exports to theUnited States, as well assome of the major emergingeconomies. Trade withChina jumped 37 percentand 30 percent with India.Brazil recorded a 45 percentrise in trade activity with theEU.

The biggest surplus lastyear 152.4 billion euros wasrecorded by the EuropeanUnion's top economy,Germany.

Ireland, struggling to con-tain problems in its bankingsystem which forced it toseek an EU bailout, alsorecorded a surplus of justmore than 43 billion euros.

Non euro zone EU mem-ber Britain, however, hadthe biggest deficit of 115.5billion euros, followed byFrance at 64.1 billion. -Reuters

US econ

growth gauge

falls in latest

week-ECRINEW YORK: A measure of future U Seconomic growth fell in the latest week,but the index's growth rate rose to a 43-week high, a research group said onFriday.

The Economic Cycle ResearchInstitute, a New York-based independ-ent forecasting group, said its WeeklyLeading Index fell to 130.4 in the weekended March 11 from 130.9 in the pre-vious week, originally reported at130.8.

The index's annualized growth raterose to 7.1 percent from 6.8 percent aweek earlier. That was the highest sinceMay 14, 2010, when it was 9.4 per cent.-Reuters

attack on Tribal Jirga on Thursday.As per details, PML took stance in adjournment motion that

Pakistani is deeply hurt over large scale of killing in drone attack andwhole nation condemns the drone attack.

Adjournment motion was submitted by PML (N) members ofNational Assembly Raja Arshad, Malik Shakir Awan, Nehgat PerveenSyed, Nisar Tanveer and Rana Muhmood Ul Hassan.-Agencies

Continued from page 1No #1

Railways and Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar.Briefing journalists the spokesperson to the President said Guven

Sak who had already held meetings with the Board of Investment,railway officials, private entrepreneurs and the stock exchangeahead of meeting the President described the project as "doable".

The President said that equity for the project maybe raisedthrough the stock exchange and leading international companies ofrepute in the business of infrastructure development. He said thatduring his visit to Japan he found out that Japanese entrepreneurswere keen to consider participation in the project.

The President said that he had suggested to the Turkish Presidentthat we will name the project as Gul Train.

He said that the project will boost trade between Europe, MiddleEast and Pakistan subsequently to be extended to other countriesof Central Asia. Farhatullah Babar said that the President alsosuggested that stock exchange and the Chamber of Commerce ofTurkey may negotiate with the stock exchange in Pakistan on theplatform of ECO Secretariat for establishment of a holding compa-ny and subsequently the setting up of joint ventures to take over thecommercial management of the cargo train.-APP

Continued from page 1No #2

attended by workers of Jamaat-e-Islami and Tehreek-e-Insaaf.Addressing the participants, Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf

Imran Khan condemned his and vowed to protect the sovereignty anddignity of the country.

"Time has come for change and the rulers should understand that thepeople of Pakistan will get their freedom from US yoke", Khan said.

He said the life and property of the people from drone attacks beprotected. Earlier, while talking during a talkshow on a private newschannel, Imran Khan said, "Had army or anybody else got done thisby force from me, I would have resigned."

He said he had met the family members of the deceased and theywere categorical that they wanted justice and not money.-Agencies

Continued from page 1No #3

taken place -- especially in the east where many Shi'ite Muslimslive. Riyadh sent 1,000 troops to neighbouring Bahrain this week tohelp contain pro-democracy protests led by majority Shi'ites that theSunni monarchy on the island broke up by force.

King Abdullah last month announced an economic package worthan estimated $37 billion in an initial move to ease social tensions.Friday's measures are significantly more costly, with plans for a build-ing spree set to cost $66.7 billion alone.

With more than $400 billion in foreign reserves, Saudi Arabia is ina more comfortable position than many neighbours to alleviate socialpressures such as high youth unemployment.

But it was not clear if financial measures and boosting the securityapparatus will silence critics within the kingdom.

Reformers have been hoping for a move towards democracy such asnew elections to municipal councils, or even elections to the ShuraCouncil -- an advisory body of appointees.

The kingdom has been slow to carry out reform promises in the con-servative state since Abdullah came to power in 2005. Diplomats saythe king faces opposition to political openings from some seniorprinces and clerics.-Reuters

Continued from page 1No #4

According to the IMF, if the petrol prices stay at the presentlevel for a long time, it will adversely affect the world econo-my.-Agencies

Continued from page 1No #5

decided to consider the possibility of extending cooperation in oiland gas, leather, pharmaceuticals and other sectors of economy. Bothsides agreed to up cowork between the institute of Genetics andExperimental Biology of Plants of the Academy of Sciences,Uzbekistan and Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) forResearch and Development. A Cultural Exchange Programme forthe next four years (2011-2015) was also agreed.

The Pakistani side had forwarded a proposal to the Uzbek side forestablishing optic fiber link from Pakistan to Uzbekistan, engineer-ing consultancy service of National Engineering Service of Pakistan(NESPAK), establishing of citizen's database, consultancy, andtraining service in this regard.

Both sides agreed to hold the 6th session of the Joint MinisterialCommission in Tashkent in 2013 on mutually agreed dates.-Online

Continued from page 1No #6

peculiar geography of the local of farms. All systems includingsprinkling, dripping and other systems would be established," saidthe spokesman.

He said that project would not only avert dangers of floods butwould also increase efficiency of irrigation and productivity.

In Pakistan per capita water availability is falling for the last 10years and if the project is implemented the shortfall would be cov-ered.-Online

Continued from page 1No #7

$114.40 a barrel as political-related violence continued acrossthe Arab world. BP rose 1 per cent on high volumes.

Companies that service energy firms also benefited, withPetrofac rising 2.2 per cent. Peer Amec added 1.5 per cent, alsosupported by Investec Securities initiating coverage of the stockwith a "buy" rating.

The troubles in the Middle East and North Africa and the ongo-ing nuclear crisis in Japan, however, meant investors were unlike-ly to rush back into equities, with some saying they still lookedexpensive. "People had become over-confident; we were due acorrection on valuation grounds, and the events in North Africa,Japan and Bahrain are just triggers for selling," said CharlesMorris, manager of the $2.5 billion HSBC Absolute Return fund.

ARM Holdings fell 4.2 per cent, with traders pointing to a notefrom Matrix that recommended reducing holdings of the designerof chips. Analysts also said Japanese supply problems after lastweek's massive earthquake there made it vulnerable.

According to Thomson Reuters data, ARM trades on more than50 times forward earnings, compared with a sector average ofaround 25 times.

Clothing retailer Next shed 0.6 percent, weighed down by a notefrom BofA Merrill Lynch that cut its rating. Reuters

Continued from page 5No #8

checkpoint near the eastern town of Sultan.Western powers faced pressure to act quickly as Gadhafi's

forces gained momentum."We're extremely worried about reprisals by pro-government

forces and security agents in Libya. No one knows what's goingon in the towns recaptured, and what's going on in prisons andother state security premises across the country," said RupertColville, spokesman for the UN Office of the HighCommissioner for Human Rights. "We are very concerned thatthe government could resort to collective punishment and wehave no illusions about what this regime is capable of."-Reuters

Continued from page 12No #9

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NEW YORK: Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, Ambassador Abdullah Hussain

Haroon speaking during a debate on Afghanistan here at the UN Security Council. -APP

LAHORE: PML-Q has reg-istered strong protest againstthe arrest of ChaudhryMoonis Elahi, declaring it asa personal vendetta of federalinterior minister RehmanMalik.

Moonis Elahi is the son offormer CM, Punjab andPML-Q top leader ChaudhryPervez Elahi.

PML-Q registered itsstrong protest during theFriday session of the provin-cial assembly, when SpeakerAssembly admitted that FIA(Federal InvestigationAgency) had, against therules, not intimated himregarding the arrest. Heassured that FIA would beaccounted for its irresponsi-ble behavior.

Chaudhry Zaheeruddininformed the House thatPML-Q had supported thePPP-led government in orderto discourage turncoats and

encourage democracy; whilea meeting between PML-Nand PPP, to discuss this veryPML-Q's support for PPP,was mistakenly touted as asupport for this case againstMoonis Elahi, which was atotally wrong notion.

He said that Moonis was ascion of a political hierarchy,and as such was bound to beindicted often, declaring theissue a result of personalgrudge between additionaldirector FIA and interiorminister Rehman Malik.

The PML-Q membersraised slogans against interi-or minister and additionaldirector FIA, which wereduly returned by PPP MPAs.The resulting pandemoniumcontinued unabated for 10minutes.

Speaking on behalf of PPP,Chaudhry Ashraf Sohna saidthat Moonis was arrestedover High Court's rejection

of bail, citing an earlier arrestof PPP minister, and eveninvestigations from PM'svery own son, as well. After asevere spat between womenMPAs of PPP and PML-Q,PPP assured PML-Q to raisethe issue in front of its lead-ership.

Meanwhile talking on apoint-of-order, PPP MPA,Sajida Mir reminded that asprevious Speaker Assembly,(the current PM) SyedYousuf Raza Gilani, issuedproduction orders of SheikhRasheed Ahmad and count-less others; hence productionorders of Moonis should alsobe produced.

MPAs including JavedAsghar, Qamar Hayat Kathia,Majida Zaidi and others,while lauding Moonis for hiscourage, demanded thatspeaker assembly shouldissue immediate productionorders.-Online

Malik got even by

Moonis arrest: ‘Q’

ISLAMABAD: PrimeMinister Syed Yousuf RazaGilani has directed AttorneyGeneral to file review petitionregarding Supreme Court deci-sion on annulment ofParliamentary committee rec-ommendations about rejectionof six judges' appointment.

Parliamentary Committee(PC) sources said Friday thatapex court had annulled PCdecision on the rejection ofextension in the service tenureof six Lahore High Court andSindh High Court judges

against which the committeerecommended the PrimeMinister (PM) to file a reviewappeal. Certain ministersopposed this decision but thePM accepted PC recommenda-tions and directed AttorneyGeneral to file a reviewappeal.

The appeal is likely to befiled on Saturday wherebygovernment will take plea thatapex court verdict runs con-trary to the powers vested withparliamentary committee asper 18th Amendment.

On the other hand PC chair-man senator Nayyar HussainBokhari said Supreme Court's(SC) detailed decision wouldbe sent to senate chairman andnational assembly speaker assoon as it would beannounced. They both wouldbe requested to put it to debateas parliament could holddebate on any decision of thecourt, he added.

He went on to say committeewould devise its strategy in thelight of decision of the parlia-ment.-Online

SC’s say on judges’term to be disputed

PM tells AG to file review plea against SC verdict

NEW DELHI: Indian PrimeMinister Manmohan SinghFriday denied allegationsmade by website WikiLeaksthat the Congress-led coali-tion government purchasedsome Members of Parliament(MPs) for a trust vote in 2008.

The prime minister said thatneither he had "authorizedanybody" to purchase votesof some MPs nor was heinvolved in any such "trans-actions," a day after the coun-try's Opposition partiesdemanded his resignationover the WikiLeaks claims.

"I have no knowledge ofany such purchases and I amabsolutely categorical, I havenot authorized anyone to pur-chase any votes. I am notaware of any acts of purchase

of votes," Singh said. "I amabsolutely certain in assertingthat I am not at all, I think,involved in any of thesetransactions."

Indian opposition partiesfrom both right and leftThursday demanded the rul-ing United ProgressiveAlliance government's imme-diate resignation over theWikiLeaks exposure that theCongress had paid money tobuy some MPs ahead of avote of confidence overIndian-US nuclear deal in2008.

The WikiLeaks cable, pub-lished by The Hindu newspa-per and allegedly comingfrom a US diplomat in Indiadated 2008, suggested thatahead of a vote of confidence

for Prime MinisterManmohan Singh over theIndian-US nuclear deal, theCongress party had boughtthe votes of Ajit Singh-ledRashtriya Lok Dal party.

The cable claimed that USdiplomats were told by anaide of Congress senior offi-cial Satish Sharma that fourMPs from Ajit Singh's partywere paid 100 million rupees(2 million US dollars) eachby Congress to ensure thatthey voted for the nucleardeal in Parliament on July 22,2008.

The Manmohan Singh gov-ernment narrowly won thevote of confidence in the LokSabha with 275 MPs votingin favor of the UPA and 256against it.-NNI

Singh shakes headon MP-buying scam

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD:PML-N has decided to voicestrong protest duringPresident Asif Zardariaddress to a joint session ofparliament on March, 22.

The decision was taken in ameeting of PML-N leaders,which was presided over bythe opposition leader in theNational AssemblyChaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

Nisar alleged presidentZardari had landed the coun-try in crisis and every partywas protesting against ill-conceived policies being pur-sued by the government.

In the prevailing situationPML-N stands with the peo-ple, he said adding his partywill protest strongly againstrampant inflation, release of

Raymond Davis, non imple-mentation of courts deci-sions, drone attacks andSwiss banks accounts issueduring President Zardariaddress to the joint session ofparliament.

He said a strategy has beenevolved in this respect andall the legislators of PML-Nhave been directed to ensuretheir presence in the Houseon Tuesday.

Chaudhry Nisar said voic-ing protest was their demo-cratic right and they wouldraise people's voice in theHouse.

According to sources,some lawmakers would bringplacards reading slogansagainst President Zardari inthe House. -Online

‘N’ set to boo

Zardari’s talk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan andChina will discuss expansionof Free Trade Agreement(FTA) in the June this yearwith an aim to boost bilateraltrade.

"We will discuss the issues ofeliminating the tariffs and pre-pare a comprehensive packagefor the implementation of thesecond phase of the FTA," atop official of the Ministry ofCommerce told new agency.

The first phase of the FTA isscheduled to end on December31, 2012, which will be fol-lowed by the second phasefrom January 2013, the officialadded.

The respective organisationsof the two governments havefinalised the modalities for thenegotiations for the implemen-tation of second phase of theFTA during a two-day sessionheld in Islamabad in the secondweek of this month.

According to Ministry ofCommerce sources, both thecountries will eliminate tariffson around 90 per cent prod-ucts, both in terms of tarifflines and trade volume within areasonable period of time onthe basis of consultation andaccommodation of the con-cerns of both the countries.

Meanwhile, Joint SecretaryCommerce Rehmatullah Khansaid that during the upcomingdiscussions on FTA, efforts

would be made to minimise thetrade gap between the twocountries.

According to trade data, theoverall trade between the twocountries in 2010 was $8.67billion, showing an increaseof 28 per cent. Chineseexports to Pakistan stood at$6.9 billion, showing anincrease of 36 per cent whileits imports from Pakistanwere recorded at $1.78 bil-lion, showing boost of 37 percent, he added.

"During the recent negotia-tions, both the sides haverealised that the growing tradegap needs to be minimised,"Rehmatullah remarked.

He said that China is a hugeeconomy and having trade sur-plus with all partner countries,adding that the FTA proposalswould be formulated in a wayto help Pakistan boost exportsto China to minimise the gap.

He said that enhancing tradevolume between the two coun-tries was a healthy sign, addingthat negotiations for the secondphase would also deal with thisparticular issue.

It is pertinent to mention herethat Pakistan and China signedFree Trade Agreement in June2006 which came into effectfrom July 2007. The FTA wasaimed at reducing tariffs oneach other's imports in twophases.-APP

Pakistan,China to size

up bigger FTA

Talks set for June this year

TRIPOLI: Libya declared animmediate cease-fire Friday,trying to fend off internationalmilitary intervention after theUN authorised a no-fly zoneand "all necessary measures"to prevent the regime fromstriking its own people. Arebel spokesman saidMoammar Gadhafi's forceswere still shelling two cities.

The United States said acease-fire announcement wasinsufficient, calling on theregime to pull back from east-ern Libya, where the once-confident rebels this weekfound themselves facing anoverpowering force usingrockets, artillery, tanks, war-planes.

Eastern Libya has the major-ity of Libya's oil reserves - thelargest in Africa. Oil pricesslid after the cease-fireannouncement, plunging about$2.50 in the first 15 minutes ofNew York trading. By midday,they stood at $101.

Mustafa Gheriani, aspokesman for the rebels, saidattacks continued well past theannouncement, which cameafter a fierce government

attack on Misrata, the lastrebel-held city in the westernhalf of the country. A doctorsaid at least six people died.

"He's bombing Misrata andAdjadbiya from 7 a.m. thismorning until now. How canyou trust him?" Gheriani said.

The UN Security Councilresolution, which passed lateThursday, set the stage forairstrikes, a no-fly zone andother military measures shortof a ground invasion. Britainannounced that it would sendfighter jets, Italy offered theuse of its bases, and Francemade plans to deploy planes.The U.S., which has an arrayof naval and air forces in theregion, had yet to announce itsrole.

With the international com-munity mobilising, LibyanForeign Minister MoussaKoussa said the governmentwould cease fire in line withthe resolution, although hecriticised the authorisation ofinternational military action,calling it a violation of Libya'ssovereignty.

"The government is openingchannels for true, serious dia-

logue with all parties," he saidduring a news conference inTripoli, the capital. He took noquestions.

In Washington, Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton said thatthe first goal of internationalaction is to end the violence inLibya and protect civilians.Clinton said governmentforces, which have advancedalong the Mediterranean coastin recent days, must pull "asignificant distance away fromthe east."

A large crowd in theBenghazi, the city where theuprising started on Feb. 15,watched the UN vote on anoutdoor TV projection andburst into cheers, with greenand red fireworks explodingoverhead. In Tobruk, anothereastern city, happy Libyansfired weapons in the air to cel-ebrate.

"We think Gadhafi's forceswill not advance against us.Our morale is very high now. Ithink we have the upper hand,"said Col. Salah Osman, a for-mer army officer who defectedto the rebel side. He was at a

See # 9 Page 11

Libya downs armsas UN flexes muscle

Army’s

110 cols

promoted

brigadiersISLAMABAD: A three dayArmy Promotion Board meet-ing concluded at GHQRawalpindi on Friday inwhich 110 Army colonelswere promoted to brigadierrank.

Chief of Army Staff GeneralAshfaq Pervez Kayanipresided over the high-levelmeeting.

According to militarysources, all respected CorpsCommanders, Principal StaffOfficers and high ranking offi-cers participated in the meet-ing.

Sources told that in thesemeetings cases of promotionsof more than 400 army offi-cers of 1989 batch were dis-cussed at length.

It must be mentioned herethat the officers who are wait-ing for promotions belong toArmoured, Infantry, Artillery,Engineers, Defence, Aviationand others Corps.

During the three-day meet-ing the recommendations ofregional promotional boardswere also discussed.

Keeping in view the vacantposts 110 colonels were pro-moted to the rank of brigadierwhile more than hundred Ltcolonels were made fullcolonels.

The promotions have beenmade on the basis of perform-ance, seniority, operationaland professional capabilities.-Online

Court sends

Moonis on

three-day

remand LAHORE: The PakistanMuslim League-Quaid(PML-Q) leader and memberof Punjab Assembly MoonisElahi was handed over to theFederal Investigation Agency(FIA) on a three-day remandon Friday.

The FIA presented MoonisElahi in the court in Lahoreand requested for a seven-day remand.

A large number of PML-Qworkers and lawyers werepresent in the court duringthe hearing.

The FIA revealed thatMoonis Elahi still had 32million rupees which hismanager had transferred totwo separate accounts.-APP

President

to address

MPs under

hard guardSpecial Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: An all-impor-tant meeting of LawEnforcement Agencies to dis-cuss security and other issueswith regard to PresidentZardari's address to the jointsitting of the parliament willbe held on Saturday (today).

The meeting will be formal-ly presided over by SecretaryNA Karamat Niazi and attend-ed by Secretary Senate,Secretary Interior, ChiefCommissioner, DeputyCommissioner, IG Security,Director IB and other securityofficials.

During the meeting approvalfor a fool-proof security planwould be given for the presi-dent's address to joint sitting.

NA Secretariat spokesmansaid that no compromise willbe made on security.

Moreover a special shuttleservice will be ran on the dayfrom Parliament lodges to theParliament to avoid any unto-ward incident on the historicday. The members of theParliament will not be allowedto park their vehicles insidethe premises while guests willalso not be issued specialpasses.

New reforms

will steady

economy:

FirdousSpecial Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: FederalMinister for Information andBroadcasting Dr FirdousAshiq Awan said Friday thatnew economic measures andreforms process would bringin durable economic stability.

The minister said that theadditional budgetary measuresworth Rs173 million,Rs120 billion reductions inallocated expenditures, andRs53 billion additional taxeshave come about with the fullcooperation of all state institu-tions including the armedforces.

The coalition partners havealso supported the governmentin taking difficult economicdecisions to control expendi-tures and increase resources,she added.

The minister said that theadditional taxes and spendingcuts are expected to provide acushion of Rs120 billion tothe government and help itrestrict fiscal deficit to lessthan 5.5 per cent of GDP fromthe projected 8 per cent orabove.

She said that these stepshave been taken to secure pub-lic finances as part of thePeople's government commit-ment to stabilise economy andpursue its economic reformsagenda.

Plan to stage protest in President’s speech to MPs