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Bulls stampede after tax reforms implementation, index up 138pts Page 03

Thursday, 01 March, 2012

KARACHI

GHULAM ABBAS

tHe decision made by the cabinet onWednesday to eliminate negativeList, under the MFn status, byDecember this year will affect the

domestic industry badly.the local industries which have proposed over1,200 items to be included in the negative listwould not be able to sustain the flow of indianmade ups within next 10 months. according tosyed nabeel Hashmi, Chairman PaaPaM, theWednesday’s development was notunderstandable as the move would not leavetime for establishing infrastructures for a levelplaying field for trade with new Delhi. the autoindustry had suggested having the cap onimports of the auto parts for at least four to fiveyears, but the haste in normalisation of tradewith the neighboring country was not justified.it is worth mentioning here that the ministry ofcommerce through a summary sent to thecabinet on MFn issue recently has proposedthat the ministry be allowed to phase out thenegative List in three stages on quarterly basisafter approval of the cabinet with quarters

ending on June 30, sept 30, and Dec 31 of theyear 2012. However, after the intervention ofthe prime minister in view of the reservationshown by various industries, the list of itemswas later increased from 636 to over 1,200. Butthe cabinet approved the list with the phase outperiod proposed by the ministry which wasanother objectionable matter for the concernedsectors. the ministry earlier had proposed 636items including food and agriculture (16),mineral (3), chemical (4), pharmaceutical (32),plastic (74), rubber (24), paper and wood (55),textile and clothing (77), iron and steel (25),and auto sectors (311) in the negative list.the ministry was of the view that for thenormalisation of trade, the proposed negativelist must be ultimately phased out, and thejustification of it is that india specific negativelist would be violation of article 17 of thesaFta agreement which clearly restrictscountries from adopting any measures thatdiminishes or nullifies any concessionsalready agreed. expressing serious concernsover the development in islamabad, therepresentatives of auto, rice, pharma,horticulture industries and others said thattheir sectors would face severe damages if the

list was phase out by the end of this year.a representative of Pharmaceutical industrysaid that the industry was taken on board whiledeciding about the phase out plan. the shortcut plan and haste in granting MFn status toDelhi would badly damage the nationalinterest, he added.the rice exporters have also shown seriousconcerns as the product, despite the proposalmade to keep all kinds of rice in the negative list,was excluded from the list posting a threat togrowers and exporters. the cheaper riceof india would be flooded in the domestic marketif safeguarding measure were taken by thegovernment, a member of Rice exportersassociation of Pakistan said. Waheed ahmed,leading fruit exporter of the country said thatthough the fruit and vegetable sector was infavour of trade liberalisation and had onlyproposed few items to be banned for importsfrom india. But the ministry has excluded allitems of the sector from the list withoutconsulting the concerned exporters and theirassociation PFVa. Besides, the country’s productshave been facing the issue of non tariff Barriers(ntBs) while exporting them to india. ntBswere also yet to be removed at the indian ports.

KARACHI

ISMAIL DILAWAR

WHiLe the resource-con-strained federal govern-ment’s longstanding plansto offload its stake in

highly-profitable oil companies seem farfrom materialization, the economic ob-servers foresee the fiscal deficit wideningbeyond six per cent of the country’s GrossDomestic Product (GDP) by the end ofFY2011-2012, a pre-election year.

the cash-strapped government, how-ever, is yet to take concrete steps on itslast year’s plan to issue secondary PublicOfferings (sPOs) for the state-owned oilfirms to bridge the fiscal gap.

the democratically-elected PPP-ledcoalition government is believed to be, nat-

urally, tending to spend more on the publicsector development front to take politicalmileage on the eve of general election ex-pected to be held in March next year.“Given 2012 a pre-election year with moreexpenditure to be incurred on account ofsubsidies and populous development plansof the government,” viewed khurramschehzad, Head of Research at investCap.

With much of the government’s rev-enues being eaten up by the servicing ofdomestic debts, of which only bank bor-rowings were calculated by the sBP atRs818.505 billion during July-Feb 17, thedevelopment expenditure registered agrowth of 11 per cent year-on-year (YoY)during the first half of current fiscal year,July-Dec FY12.

the analyst said keeping 1H fiscaldeficit in perspective, the country’s annu-

alized fiscal deficit should settle aroundfive per cent of the GDP. “However, it isbound to stretch beyond 6 per cent atleast,” he warned.

Like india, the economic managers inPakistan are also thinking of bridging thisdeficit through the sale of government’sstake in the oil companies, but have so farnot been able to take practical steps.

“Gov’t of Pakistan… has also plannedsPOs since last year… however, no con-crete development has taken place byfar,” said khurram.

analysing latest data of the Ministryof Finance on fiscal deficit for the periodof 1HFY12, the analyst said the fiscal gapthough contracted in 1HFY12, was set togo beyond six per cent in FY12.

as per the latest fiscal update, en-couragingly, total revenues of the country

stood at Rs1.14 trillion, showing a growthof 15 per cent YoY during 1HFY12, whiletotal expenditures went up at a slightlylower pace of 13 per cent YoY during thesame period, totaling Rs1.67 trillion, hesaid. “Resultantly, the total budget deficitstood at 2.5 per cent of GDP (or Rs533billion) as against 2.3 per cent (Rs490billion) recorded in 1HFY11.” He said dipin the second quarter of FY12’s deficitwas almost flat both QoQ and YoY basisat 1.3 per cent of the GDP.

“the contraction in the budget deficiton YoY basis was primarily due to exclu-sion of the one-time circular debt-relatedtFC swap that was issued to banks in2QFY12 for compensating energy sectorcompanies against their ever-mountingpayables and receivables,” khurram said.

the term Finance Certificates (tFCs)

worth Rs391 billion were converted intoPakistan investment Bonds and Markettreasury Bills amid non-servicing.

thus, had these Rs391 billion been in-cluded, the budget deficit would have shotup to Rs923 billion, that accounts for 4.4per cent of GDP. the analyst said the cre-ation of a special Purpose Vehicle of PowerHolding Company Limited saved the gov-ernment this time around as another tFCof Rs136 billion was already transferred toPHCL. the country’s tax revenues, he said,had shown a solid growth of 25 per centYoY during the fist half, most of which wasrecorded during the second quarter.

“the Federal Board of Revenue’s hunt-down to increase tax revenues by fetchingmore taxpayers into the net seems to haveyielded results as the direct tax portion hasimproved to 34 per cent in the tax revenuebasket, from 31 per cent in the last quar-ter,” he said. On the other hand, the gov-ernment’s total expenditures wereescalated mainly through the duo of inter-est repayment, on mounting governmentdebt, and defence operations, making upto 46 per cent of the total current expendi-ture (48 per cent in 2Q).

khurram said rising portions ofdeficit financing from the domesticsources had jacked up the government’sdebt servicing cost, accumulating to 94per cent of the total financing, which wasbeing locked in at higher domestic inter-est rates compared to external financing.

PSO downplays NATOjet fuel supply rumours

KARACHI

GHULAM ABBAS

Pakistan state Oil (PsO) has played downthe impression in foreign media that it wasgoing to import jet fuel from international

sources to restore supply to north atlantic treatyOrganisation (natO) in afghanistan. as the supplyfrom one of the major refineries in the country isscheduled to be shut down for maintenance duringthe next few weeks, PsO was going to import the jetfuel in order meet the shortages and domesticdemand. Foreign media recently peddled that thecompany was seeking jet fuel imports for the firsttime since november, in a sign that supplies tonatO in the neighbouring country afghanistanmight resume in the coming months. PsO througha floated tender was seeking one 25,000-tonnecargo of jet fuel each in april and May this year,with an option for taking an additional cargo in theMay-June period. the company had halted the fuelsupply to the international organisation soon afterthe natO’s air strike on Pakistani army personnelat salala Check post in november last yearfollowing the closure of key supplies route to natOforces. according to the report PsO usually buysone or two 200,000-barrel cargoes of aviation fueleach month in the international market andsupplies three cargoes of jet fuel every two monthsto natO forces, which are trucked to afghanistan.However, in reply to a numbers of queriesforwarded by Profit, the official sources at PsOsaid, “the recent jet fuel tender floated by PsOpertains to only domestic use. One of the majorrefineries is scheduled for maintenance in thecoming weeks. to ensure that there is no productshortage due to the maintenance and the shutdown of the local refinery, PsO is seeking jet fuelfrom international sources. therefore theassumption that the tender is for natO forces isincorrect.” in reply to a query as to whether PsOwas restoring the fuel supply to natO, thecountry’s largest fuel retailer claimed, “it is theGovernment of Pakistan, which is the sole decisionmaker regarding restoration of product supply toafghanistan. PsO has no role in the decisionmaking process and will comply with government’sdecisions and policies”. the oil marketing companyalso played down the impression that it was earliersupplying the fuel to natO saying that ”PsO onlyexports jet fuel to afghanistan as a country not toany specific organisation.” to another question,they said POL supplies to afghanistan were haltedinline with the border closure imposed byislamabad after the incident at salala check post onnovember 26, 2011.

Reaction of industries overtrade liberalisation with IndiaDecision to phase out negative list will harm local industry

Subsidies, populous uplift plans to widen budgetdeficit beyond 6pc in ‘pre-election’ year of FY12g Govt plans to issue SPOs for state-owned oil firms to bridge fiscal gap g Revenues to go to debt servising as only bankborrowings amount to Rs818.505 during July-Feb 17 g Development expenditure up by 11 per cent YoY during July-Dec FY12

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news02Thursday, 01 March, 2012

Govt mulls over de-linking LPG prices from AramcoISLAMABAD: Government is again thinking to delinkLiquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) prices from the saudiaramco Contract Prices (CP) as linking of locally producedLPG with international price is helping the cartels. specialassistant to Prime Minister on Petroleum Dr asim Hussainwhile addressing an annual general meeting of LPGdistributors association on Wednesday said the governmentis going to delink LPG prices with saudi aramco ContractPrices (CP) to benefit the consumers. He said thegovernment is pursuing efforts to eliminate cartels in LPGbusiness and is encouraging fair competition. thegovernment had linked LPG prices with the saudi aramco,last year, claiming that it would help increase the LPGimports which were successfully hindered by local producersby reducing prices. However, the industry had opposed themove saying that the government was trying to give unduefavour to public sector company’s reentry in the LPGmarketing business. During the last few months very fewquantity of LPG was imported even though the governmenthad made it mandatory for all marketing companies toimport at least 20 per cent of their quota. AMER SIAL

ECC nod to be obtained for fast track development of hydropower projectsISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power syednaveed Qamar said on Wednesday said that a simplifiedframework for fast track development of private sectorhydropower projects has been prepared which would besubmitted for the approved of economic CoordinationCommittee of the cabinet. He said this while chairing theBoard of Private Power and infrastructure Board (PPiB).He said the framework has been developed inconsultation with all provinces and aJk. it provides threemodes for project processing, including processing ofsites through international Competitive Bidding (iCB)where the feasibility study and detailed engineering anddesign have been completed; advertisement for siteswhere no detailed engineering and design has beencompleted and raw site proposals where no feasibilitystudy has been completed. STAFF REPORT

CCP issues show cause notices to NationalPolice Foundation, Tri-Star Cable NetworkISLAMABAD: Competition Commission of Pakistan(CCP) on Wednesday issued show cause notices to thenational Police Foundation (nPF) and tri-star CabletV network for, prima facie, entering into an exclusiveagreement prohibited under the Competition act, 2010.a statement issued by CCP said it received a formalComplaint from the nayatel Limited and informalcomplaints from the residents of nPF that a ten-yearagreement took place between nPF and tri-star CabletV network on 27 november 2008, granted exclusiveright to company in respect of multi-channel cable tVand data transmission services in sector e-11 owned bynPF. this agreement, the complaints said, restrictedconsumers from getting service from other operators ofchoice in the relevant area. STAFF REPORT

KCCI shows concern over unchanged mode of FBRKARACHI: karachi Chamber of Commerce and industry(kCCi) has taken strong exception to the arbitraryimposition of the condition to provide CniC/ntn for thesales conducted to the unregistered persons notifiedthrough sRO nO.191 (i) 2012 dated 23rd February, 2012.Despite the objections raised by kCCi through a number ofcommunications and views conveyed to the Chairman, FBRregarding unacceptability of draft sRO, FBR proceeded toissue sRO 191, making it mandatory to provide CniC/ntnof unregistered buyers in the sales tax returns filed by theregistered persons from March 2012. kCCi has beenoverwhelmed by representations from all sectors of thebusiness community, including traders, importers,exporters, wholesalers, retailers and industrialists, whohave expressed deep resentment over imposition of suchdraconian measures without consulting the representativebodies of tax payers, including kCCi. STAFF REPORT

Oil bomb to hit economy hard: LCCILAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and industryWednesday urged the government to withdraw oil pricehike decision as the ‘oil shock’ is bound to hit economy andmasses alike. in a statement issued here Wednesday, theLCCi President irfan Qaiser sheikh said that petroleumprices were already at the highest level and any furtherincrease would prove to be the last straw that breaks thecamel’s back. the LCCi President said that a comparisonbetween the international oil prices and local prices isenough to make the point that the local prices haveregistered more than 50 per cent increase in the last twoyears in comparison with the global rates. therefore, hesaid, that the government has no justification to make anyincrease in POL prices. irfan Qaiser sheikh said that theincrease would hit all the sectors of the economy thatwould jack up the inflation and resultant hike in markuprates and disturb the entire economic cycle. STAFF REPORT

KARACHI

JAVED MAHMOOD

Pakistani textile manufac-turers and exporters shouldexplore markets in Russiaand Central asian Re-

publics with the aim to enhance ex-ports and to raise foreign exchange.Russia’s imports alone are worthabout $70 billion textile products ayear and Pakistan’s textile exports toRussia are extremely low, at just $100million dollars, said Farooq afzal, atextile exporter and Chairman, Pak-Russia Business Council. Pakistan isone of the few champions of textileexports, but country’s share in Russ-ian markets was insignificant.

Besides focusing on markets ineurope and america, the textile pro-ducers and exporters should pene-trate in Russian market that wasspending $70 billion a year on textileimports, he said. He also pointed outthat kazakhstan, turkmenistan andUkraine were also major markets forthe exports of textile products.

“i firmly believe that turk-menistan and kazakhstan are the fu-

ture Dubai and Qatar and Pakistaniexporters must explore markets inthese countries,” he said.

Farooq afzal said that the gov-ernment should disengage the Pak-istani economic ministers andcommercial counselors from the for-eign missions and appoint their localexperts having strong connections intheir business community. He cited

the example of Bangladesh that en-gaged a few american experts of tex-tile marketing, who ultimately madeBangladesh one of the leading textileexporting countries in few years.

He regretted that most of theeconomic ministers and commercialattaches are appointed in the foreignmissions on “favouritism” and showleast interest in working for the cause

of the country and remain busy inpursuing their personal or vested in-terests. Farooq afzal also demandedof the government to impose gradualban on the export of raw cotton, yarnand fabrics to promote the manufac-turing and exports of value addedtextile products.

Pakistani textile industry needs16-17 million bales of raw cotton a yearto meet export orders, but the countryproduces about 14 million bales andthe shortfall is met through import ofcotton. He said that most of the cottonis consumed by the yarn and fabricsexporters. He said that to promotevalue addition in textile sector, thegovernment would have to eliminateexport of yarn and fabrics, in phases.

the incentives that are beinggiven to yarn and fabrics manufac-turers and exporters, should be di-verted towards those who areexporting high value added textileproducts, he added.Value addition intextile, he said, would enhance ex-ports, generate more foreign ex-change, increase employment andenable Pakistan to get rid of iMF andthe World Bank, he said.

LAHORE

IMRAN ADNAN

L iQUeFieD petroleum gas(LPG) prices ininternational markets havetouched a new record high

as liquid gas fuel price has settledat Rs1,210 per tonne for Marchcontracts. LPG sector stakeholdersbelieve that LPG price in localmarkets could climb up to Rs160per kilogram if local producers tryto match the contract price. thesaudi aramco contract price (CP)for March touched a historic highof $1,230 for Propane and $1,180for Butane. LPG experts calculatethat the applicable price inPakistan – on 40:60 ratio ofpropane to butane – will be $1,210per tonne. speaking to Pakistantoday, LPG association ofPakistan (LPGaP) spokesmanBelal Jabbar said, “the March CPhas increased by $182 per tonnefrom that of February andrepresents a new record for the

saudi price benchmark. theincrease is attributable tocontinuing tensions in the PersianGulf and a surge in demand fromJapan.” He pointed out that onFebruary 27, the Lahore HighCourt had suspended theimposition of PetroleumDevelopment Levy (PDL) on LPG,which had been implemented onlocal production to forcefullyequate its price with that ofimports. in a welcoming gesture,marketing companies immediatelyslashed their prices by Rs120 percylinder and retail prices fell to aslow as Rs130 per kilogram.However, he indicated that theunprecedented increase in saudiaramco contract price might onceagain swell LPG prices in domesticmarkets as it was being anticipatedthat local producers would try tomatch the price increase. “We hopeproducers will be mindful of thisunprecedented hike and price theirproduct with a view to ensuringproduct affordability,” Belal

underscored. Responding to aquestion, LPGaP spokesman saidthat state-owned LPG producershad 65 per cent share in local LPGproduction. “if the governmentdecide to match new contract pricedomestic and commercial cylinderprices could jump up by Rs1,532to Rs1,880 and Rs5,902 toRs7,264, respectively. inFebruary, OGDCL commencedproduction of 130 Mt per dayfrom its kunnar Pasaki Field,increasing the country’s dailyoutput by 12 per cent to 1,150tons. although the additionalproduction succeeded indisplacing costlier imports, whichremained zero in February,smuggled and under invoiced LPGfrom iran continued unabated. “inview of the additional production,zero imports and a record highsaudi aramco CP, LPG sectorexpects producers will refrain fromincreasing their prices, which willallow retail prices to remain stableat Rs130 per kilo” said Belal.

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

tHe actual Gross Domestic Product(GDP) of Pakistan is nearer to $300 bil-lion and not $210 billion, as is shownofficially. and, if the ailing economy of

the troubled Pakistan is assumed to grow by 3 percent per year by 2015 the size of the actual GDPwould likely to set between $ 350 and $ 375 bil-lion. this was stated by Managing Director ksenadeem naqvi while briefing the visiting V.shankar, Member of the Board, standard Char-tered Bank PLC and CeO europe, Middle east,africa and americas here at karachi stock ex-change (kse) on Wednesday.

“Using conservative estimates, 50 per cent ofthe economy is in the undocumented sector,”naqvi said adding that further estimation showedthat the per capita income of top 10 per cent ofhouseholds in Pakistan was near $5,000 versusnational per capita income of $1,190.

“this represents a significant potential mar-

ket for investment and financial services,” theMD added. also, naqvi highlighted the areaswhere kse and sCBPL could cooperate that, hesaid, include investor awareness generation, at-tracting non-Resident Pakistanis (nRPs) to thecapital market and helping private companieslist on the exchange. earlier, shankar, accompa-nied by Mohsin nathani, Chief executive ofstandard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited(sCBPL) and senior members of his manage-ment team, rang the “Opening Bell” of the ksein the presence of Chairman kse Muneer kamal,MD nadeem naqvi, DMD kse Haroon askariand directors of the kse Board.

On the occasion shankar said there wastremendous opportunity for growth in intra-re-gional trade for the south asian economies, par-ticularly india and Pakistan. illustratingindia-China bilateral trade, he said when sino-in-dian trade opened up they had to overcome someapprehensions, however, today they were one ofthe largest trading partners with benefit to bothcountries. Welcoming the guests, chairman kse

Muneer kamal said Pakistan’s economy was at aninflection point. Despite challenges posed by lowtax-to-GDP ratio, power sector difficulties and cur-rent account pressure due to demand slowdown inkey export markets, Pakistan at present was in aposition to repay iMF loans.

the foreign exchange reserves, supported bystrong remittances by overseas Pakistanis, were ina much healthier position than at the height ofglobal financial crisis in late 2008. While debtservicing burden had risen, it should be viewed inthe global context and Pakistan’s total debt-to-GDP ratio of 64 per cent was far lower than manyeuro zone and G-8 economies.

a concerted effort to mobilise tax revenue andfocus on emerging domestic energy resources suchas coal would go a long way in fixing structural de-ficiencies causing large budget deficits. kamalhighlighted that economic growth can be furtheraccelerated with growing intra-regional trade inthe sub-continent. He pointed out that while intra-regional trade in east asia was 23 per cent of GDP,it was only 1 per cent of the GDP in south asia.

Textile industry should tapRussian, CAR markets

KSE contradicts official figures for Pakistan’sGDP, says actual amounts to $300bn

LPG price touches record high again

PRO 01-03-2012_Layout 1 3/1/2012 4:06 AM Page 2

Etihad Airways, Cinnabon to fly winners to UAELAHORE: etihad airways, the national airline of theUnited arab emirates, and Cinnabon Pakistan aregiving away a trip for two to the Uae. the winner ofthe promotion, running throughout March, will re-ceive two return Coral economy class tickets from anyof the airline’s four destinations in Pakistan - karachi,Lahore, islamabad and Peshawar - to abu Dhabi, aswell as other exciting prizes from both etihad airwaysand Cinnabon including vouchers and gift hampers.Cinnabon customers are automatically entered into alucky dip draw when purchasing coffee or baked rollsfrom any of this famous american baked goodschain’s outlets in Pakistan. PRESS RELEASE

Faysal Bank signs health agreement with Allianz EFU KARACHI: Faysal Bank Limited (FBL) has enteredinto a strategic partnership with allianz eFU Health in-surance Limited (allianz eFU) for their upcomingproduct Faysal aik Faisla Health Plan. the agreementsigning ceremony took place at Faysal House recently.Mr aarij ali, Head Retail Banking FBL and Mr. taherG sachak, – Vice Chairman - allianz eFU, signed theagreement. among representation ofboth organisa-tions, Mr Mir nejib Rehman - Head Wealth Manage-ment and e-Banking FBL, Mr ahmed Hemani – HeadBancassurance, investment Products and ChannelManagement FBL and kamran ansari, Chief OperatingOfficer - allianz eFU were also present. PRESS RELEASE

Megatech Pakistan to lead textile exhibition LAHORE: the 10th edition of the international Ma-chinery exhibition of Garment and textile technol-ogy – MeGateCH Pakistan 2012, is all set to lead tothe textile exhibition season of 2012. the exhibitionwill be an excellent display of international machineryfrom over 15 countries for our textile industry to reachexport markets with the value added products from1st – 3rd March, 2012 at the expo Centre Lahore. the

exhibition will also provide investors and decisionmakers a highly focused and interactive environmentwhere they will get an opportunity to meet their coun-terparts. the show is extensively supported by Min-istry of textile industry, Board of investment,engineering Development Board and several textilerelated trade associations. PRESS RELEASE

Humayun Bashir gets elected as President OICCIKARACHI: Humayun Bashir, Country General Man-ager, iBM has been elected as the President of Overseasinvestors Chamber of Commerce and industry (OiCCi)for the 2012 term. this was announced at the 152ndannual General Meeting of the OiCCi held on Wednes-day, February 29, 2012. Mr asif Jooma, Managing Di-rector, abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited waselected as the Vice President. the other members of theManaging Committee elected for the 2012 term are: Mrasad s Jafar (Philips electrical industries of PakistanLimited), Mr azhar ali syed (tetra Pak Pakistan Lim-ited), Mr irfan siddiqui (Meezan Bank Limited), Mrkimihide ando (Mitsubishi Corporation), Mr M asifsaad (Lotte Pakistan Pta Limited), Mr MohammadZubair (Chevron Pakistan Limited), Mr sarim sheikh(shell Pakistan Limited) and Ms Zehra naqvi (aCe in-surance Limited). PRESS RELEASE

Khushhalibank, IBA announce winners of ISERVE 2012KARACHI: khushhalibank and iBa entrepreneurshipsociety (iBaes) recently announced winners at the finaleof iseRVe 2012 - a unique social enterprise competitionaimed at providing students a platform to contribute sig-nificantly towards the community in the form of sustain-able social ideas and creating a new generation of viablesocial ventures. the finale was held at iBa Main Campus,where top six short listed teams, from a pool of 28 en-tries, presented their ideas. M Zafar ahmed siddiqui, Di-rector-Centre for entrepreneurial Development (CeD),iBa, kindly consented to be the chief guest at the cere-mony. the winner was awarded Rs500,000 with the firstrunner-up and second runner-up receiving Rs300,000and Rs200,000, respectively. PRESS RELEASE

University of Lahore holds its convocation

LAHORE: the latest Convocation of students from theUniversity of Lahore was overseen by the guest of honour,Mr sardar Mohammed Latif khosa, the Governor of Pun-jab. He congratulated the students on their brilliant per-formance and hard work for accomplishing so much. Healso highlighted the achievement of the young female stu-dents, who this year outnumbered the male students. theGovernor called for their greater participation in nationallife, saying the empowerment of women is a driver for de-velopment and achievement. PRESS RELEASE

IBA, NBP organise INFER 2012KARACHI: iBa economics and Finance Clubs alongwith nBP as sponsor are organising the competition forall those enlightened souls that are ready to battle out thetest of intellect and creative thinking in the arena of eco-nomics and finance. iBa is bringing forth yet another edi-tion of inFeR, following the tremendous success ofinFeR 2011. the second chapter unveils itself as a threeday competition centric workshop beginning March 30,2012 embedded with a plethora of rounds designed tochallenge the abilities of the selected 150 participants. thecompetition comprises of two phases: Registration andthe three-day competition, each with a hierarchy of stages.Due to competition based nature of the rounds, there willbe continuous short listing of the teams through eachleague of the competition. PRESS RELEASE

Soneri Bank announces results for 2011LAHORE: soneri Bank Limited has announced its fi-nancial results for the year 2011. the Chairman of theBank, Mr alauddin J Feerasta, presided over the Boardthat met in Lahore on 28 February, 2012. the result re-

flects strong growth in all areas of the Bank’s operations.Deposits grew by 21.6 per cent to close at Rs99,734m(2010 : Rs82,016m) whereas the net advances as at De-cember 31, 2011 amounted to Rs65,340m up by 19.5 percent from 2010 levels. Resultantly the net assets closedat Rs10 977m thus translating a growth of 23.09 percent from 2010 levels. the bank’s after tax profitjumped to Rs784m, up from Rs125m, primarily due toa solid growth in net interest income of 27.9 per cent,(up from Rs3.00bn to Rs3.89bn) and increase in non-interest income by 59.2 per cent (up from Rs1.22bn toRs1.95bn). Resultantly the Bank’s ePs went up to Re0.96 from Re 0.17. PRESS RELEASE

SNGPL earns over Rs1b profit beforetax for half yearLAHORE: snGPL earned Rs1,016 million profit beforetax as compared to Rs684 million in the correspondingperiod last. the Profit after tax has also increased toRs648 million as against Rs468 million Profit after taxduring the six months of last year. as a result of increasein earning, the earnings per share of the company in-creased to Rs1.12 as against Re0.81 in the same period lastyear. the Board of Directors of the company approved theun-audited half yearly/second quarter accounts for the pe-riod ended December 31, 2011 during a meeting held inLahore. the gas sales if the Company approved the un-au-dited half yearly /second quarter accounts for the periodended December 31, 2011 during a meeting held in Lahore.the gas sales of the company in terms of volume duringthe period was 292, 466 MMCF as against 292,997 duringthe same period early last year. PRESS RELEASE

news

Thursday, 01 March, 2012

03

CORPORATE CORNER

KARACHI: Ch Ahmad Mukhtar, Defence Minister,inaugurating Traveller’s Book Club and Book Shop at JinnahInternational Airport Karachi. Ms Nargis Sethri, SecretaryDefence, is also seen in the picture. PRESS RELEASE

Major Gainers

Company Open High Low Close Change Turnover

Nestle PakistanXD 3340.39 3507.40 3364.99 3500.46 160.07 652Wyeth Pak Limited 763.33 780.00 768.00 779.96 16.63 309Colgate Palmolive 784.80 800.00 755.00 797.25 12.45 820Shezan Inter. 112.16 117.76 114.90 117.75 5.59 1,300Atlas Battery Ltd. 182.05 187.00 183.90 186.99 4.94 1,813

Major Losers

Bata (Pak) Ltd. 679.23 679.98 646.00 649.59 -29.64 255Service Industries 198.90 197.98 193.00 193.89 -5.01 592MCB Bank Ltd 179.67 181.47 176.00 176.62 -3.05 623,727Biafo Ind. 59.05 56.10 56.10 56.10 -2.95 1,005Pak Gum & Chemicals 53.11 50.51 50.46 50.46 -2.65 1,107

Volume Leaders

Lotte PakPTA 7.90 8.90 7.93 8.90 1.00 25,728,451Jah.Sidd. Co. 10.01 10.09 9.52 9.58 -0.43 12,986,149National Bank 52.11 53.19 51.10 51.39 -0.72 10,914,841Fauji Cement 4.20 4.54 4.18 4.45 0.25 10,830,303TRG Pakistan Ltd. 2.48 2.92 2.50 2.70 0.22 9,478,634

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 90.9570UK Pound 144.8945Japanese Yen 1.1289Euro 122.4282

Buy Sell

US Dollar 90.60 91.10

Euro 121.31 122.35

Great Britain Pound 143.84 144.99

Japanese Yen 1.1196 1.1282

Canadian Dollar 91.00 92.35

Hong Kong Dollar 11.49 11.73

UAE Dirham 24.63 24.79

Saudi Riyal 24.13 24.26

Australian Dollar 97.36 99.69

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

WeDnesDaY, last trading day ofFebruary, saw a bullish trendthroughout the day as confirma-tion by the securities and ex-

change Commission of Pakistan of theimplementation of the proposed tax reforms onCapital Gains tax (CGt) helped the investors’sentiments falling in the positive zone.

“a meeting of tax Reform CoordinationGroup decided for minimum 120 day holding pe-riod with a presidential order on an ordinance,”viewed ahsan Mehanti, a director at arif Habibsecurities adding “Pakistan stocks closed bullishled by oil and fertilizer stocks amid higher tradesafter apex regulator confirmed reformed CGtregime implementation from april1”. after wit-nessing a slight lose of 4.44 points a day earlier,the benchmark kse 100-share index gained138.66 points to close at 12,877.88 points against12,739.22 points of on tuesday.

the index hit the intraday high of 12,912.96points and then plunged to the intraday low of

12,739.22 points.total traded shares at the ready counter were

counted at 206.475 million shares against217.592 million shares of the previous day. thetrading value upped to Rs6.636 billion fromtuesday’s Rs6.209 billion. the market capitali-sation marked a slight gain and closed at Rs3.338trillion against Rs3.316 trillion of the previoussession. Of the total 359 scrips traded, 140gained, 153 lost while 66 remained unchanged.

the turnover in the future contracts in-creased to 14.102 million shares compared to12.880 million shares of last trading day.

Lotte PakPta as a volume leader of the daycounted its traded shares at 25.728 million eachpriced at Rs7.90 in the opening and Rs8.90 inthe closing. “Bullish sentiments prevailedthroughout the trading session and the indexmanaged to close on its highs amid higherglobal commodities, easing political outlookand institutional consolidation across stocks byretail and institutional investors,” Mehanti said.

the analyst said strong earnings announce-ments in banks, oil and fertiliser sector playeda catalyst role in bullish sentiments post majorannouncements at kse.

Bulls stampede after tax reformsimplementation, index up 138pts

ISLAMABAD

AMER SIAL

aFteR enhancing the ca-pacity of the existingtransmission line, iranhas increased power

supply up to 70 MW to Pakistanfrom February 26, which is beingsupplied to the Makran Divisionin Balochistan.

a spokesman for the Ministryof Water and Power said that theenhancement in power supply

from iran has made the coastaldivision of the Balochistan totallyload shedding free areas. the im-port of 70 MW will help meet re-quirements for the next five yearselectricity demand of the division.

earlier, Pakistan was gettingonly 35 MW from iran. all thepower, coming from iran is beingsupplied to the Makran divisioninclude Gwadar port, Gwadar dis-trict, turbat, Panjgur, Mand andother areas of the division. theoverall demand of the Makran di-

vision is 55 MW in summer and40 MW in winter season. Previ-ously there was load shedding of10 to 12 hours in all the areas ofthe division to keep intact the sys-tem. all the areas now are loadshedding free in the Division.

He said that two separateprojects of importing 1000 MWand 100 MW from iran were atthe final stage of negotiations andconstruction of transmission lineswould be started immediatelyafter the finalisation of tariff.

Meanwhile in a statementMinister for Water and Powersyed naveed Qamar has said thatthe government was taking allsteps to facilitate the people ofBalochistan and special effortswere made to upgrade the trans-mission network within shortestpossible time. He said that indus-trial, commercial and domesticconsumers of the area will getbenefit from this power and therewill be also economic develop-ment there.

Iran begins 70mw power supply

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