Thursday, 2 August, 2012

Iranian sanctions soapopera recommences

US imposes new sanctions on

Iran oil sector

WASHINGTON

AGENCIES

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday imposed neweconomic sanctions on iran’s oil export sector and on a pair ofChinese and iraqi banks accused of doing business withTehran. in a statement released by the White House, Obamasaid the new measures underlined the United States’determination to force Tehran “to meet its internationalobligations” in nuclear negotiations. The sanctions came onthe same day as the US State Department branded iran “anactive state sponsor of terrorism” in its 2011 annual terrorismreport, and as US lawmakers prepared to vote legislationdemanding more action. Obama is keen to show his iraniansanctions regime is tough, amid fears israel may launchunilateral strikes against iran if it believes the islamic regimeis on the point of achieving the capability to build a nuclearbomb. “This action is designed to deter iran from establishingpayment mechanisms for the purchase of iranian oil tocircumvent existing sanctions,” Obama said, warning that USsanctions will be apply to any entity buying iranian oil. Obamasaid measures would be taken against firmsthat have dealings with the Nationaliranian Oil Company, the Naftiranintertrade Company or the CentralBank of iran or that help iran buy USdollars or precious metals. “Today’saction makes it clear that we willexpose any financialinstitution ... that allowsthe increasingly desperateiranian regime to retainaccess to theinternational financialsystem,” he said.

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

The month of July augured well for the consumersin Pakistan who must have heaved in relief as thebackbreaking price hike during the review monthnot only plunged to a single-digit but also hit thelowest level since December 2009.

According to available figures, the ConsumerPrice index (CPi) inflation during July stood at 9.6percent as against 11.26 percent of last month inJune. “The reported CPi is the lowest since Decem-ber 2009,” said the analysts at Topeline research.

On monthly basis, the inflation stood at -0.3percent compared to 0.04 percent of the previousmonth. This monthly inflation numbers, the ana-lysts said, came in negative after six months.

“Though still awaiting the detail break-up, webelieve the subdued number in the month of Juneis a reflection of decline in average petroleumprices and 18 percent decrease in consumer gastariff effective from July 2012,” said Topeline ana-lyst Nauman Khan.

Further, he said the ramadan factor had notbeen incorporated in these inflation numbers.“These soft numbers attach a lower side bias to ouraverage FY13 inflation forecast range of 10-11 per-cent,” he added.

The analyst said he was firm that the soft infla-tion numbers coupled with $ 1.2 billion disburse-ment by the United States under the long-withheldCoalition Support Fund would help the State Bankto reduce the discount rate by 50 basis points in theupcoming monetary policy decision.

Governor State Bank of Pakistan Yasin Anwar,however, had once, in an exclusive interview, toldPakistan Today that inflation numbers for a singlemonth could never be a yardstick for makingchanges in the discount rate which is determinedkeeping in view the overall economic conditions.

KARACHI

ISMAIL DILAWAR

Despite negatives like the ongoing politi-cal turmoil and ratings downgrade bymoody’s Pakistan remained the best per-forming market of Asia during the monthof July, shows the mSCi indices.

During the month in review, thebenchmark KSe 100-share index markedan appreciation of 5.6 percent month-on-month (mom) after resuming its rallythat was suspended since march thisyear. This was unlike the historical pat-tern depicted in the past 10 years’ Julymonthly returns that averaged at 2.2 per-cent. The market average value, however,have been lower in the last decade withonly $ 43 million, down 80 percent fromdecade’s average at $ 119 million.

“if we segregate the monthly returnin two halves, we find that during the firsthalf of the month, the market remainedin upward trajectory and touched thehighest level of 14,568 on closing basis,”viewed mazhar A. Sabir, an analyst at in-

vestCap research.Sabir cited improvement in the Pak-

US strained ties after the resumption ofNato supplies as a major attributable fac-tor for the stocks market’ rally saying,however, in the later part of the month themarket remained stagnant and the indexshowed range bound behavior with lowactivities highlighting the investors’ moodduring this holy month of ramadan.

The analysts at Topline research,however, opine that better foreign in-flows and easing inflation, along with im-proving Pak-US relations, helpedPakistani equities to outperform Asianemerging and frontier markets.

According to Farhan mahmood, aTopline analyst, with continued head-winds in the euro zone and uncertainglobal economic growth, all leading mSCiindices remained almost flat during themonth. The mSCi World posted 1.2 per-cent return while mSCi emerging andmSCi frontier markets posted a return of1.6 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, Pakistan market

outperformed all regional markets.Amongst 12 Asian countries tracked bythe mSCi, Pakistan posted highest USdollar return of 5.6 percent beating allother regional markets that posted a re-turn ranging from negative nine percentto four percent.

Compared to KSe 100-share index’s5.6 percent growth, india and China, thetwo leading markets, posted negative re-turns of 1.1 percent and 4.4 percent, re-spectively. moreover, Pakistan’sperformance relative to other Asian fron-tier market, like Sri Lanka, Vietnam andBangladesh, was far better with all post-ing negative return of 0.4 percent, 2.0percent and 8.9 percent, respectively.

“So far in 2012 Pakistan is secondbest performing market in Asia while it istop performing in Asian Frontier mar-kets,” mahmood said.

During the year, he said, the bench-mark index posted a gain of 22 percent indollar terms only to be beaten by Philip-pines that posted a return of 27 percent.

Compared to foreign net selling of $109 million ($40 million excludingHubco deal) in June, the foreigners inPakistan turned net buyers of $30 million(gross buying $64 million, gross selling$33 million) during July.

So far in 2012, foreigners havebought $540 million worth of shareswhile sold $541 million value of shares,thus resulting in net selling of $1 million.However, if we exclude Hubco deal, thenforeigners are net buyers of $68 millionin 2012YTD. The future outlook of thelocal equities, the analysts believe, is posi-tive. A sector-wise performance shows thatJuly saw the cement sector outperformingthe KSe 100 index returns and posting a re-turn of 16 percent based on market capitalfollowed by financial services and softwareand computer service sectors, which postedreturns of 13 percent and 12percent mom, respectively,compared to 6 percent return ofthe index during the month.

“The corporate resultseason is gettingin its full swing,this holy monthof ramadan maysee slightly better re-turns compared tolast a couple ofyears,” said Sabir.in addition, theanalyst said,the centralb a n k ’ s

monetary policy decision for the next twomonths, due in August, had also turnedfavorable for the stocks investors as nochange in (12 percent discount rate,which may continue provided the StateBank borrowing of the government to-gether with inflation stays within tar-geted limits for FY13.

PM likely to announce

package for PSM ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

Prime minster raja Parvez Ashraf is likelyto visit Pakistan Steel mills (PSm) withintwo weeks where he will formallyannounce a bail out package and relief forits employees. According to media reports,government sources said Prime minsterraja Parvez Ashraf has assured the CeOSteel mills, major General (retd.)mohammed Javed and Chairman CBA,Shamshad Qureshi about his expectedvisit to Steel mills. Last week, a delegationof Pakistan Steel mills had invited him tovisit the Steel mills. Consequently, it isexpected that Prime minister rajaPervez Ashraf will visit Pakistan Steelmills before or immediately after August14. it merits mentioning here that thefederal government has already allottedrs 14.6 billions on account of bail outpackage to the steel mills. About 17000people are employees of Pakistan Steelmills while it is bearing a monthly deficitof rs 1.5 billion.

InflatIon clIngs

onto a downward spiral Analysts foresee ease in

monetary policy as inflation

slides to single-digit

Garment sector exportsdecline by $139m

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

Chronic power and gas shortages severely hit the domesticgarment sector of the country as it exports fell by $139million during financial year 2011-12. The country’sgarment exports declined by $139 million, from $1.773billion in fiscal year 2010-2011 to $1.634 billion in fiscalyear 2011-2012. According to exporters they had sufferedeight percent decline in exports of readymade garments inthe last fiscal year. According to former chairman ofPakistan readymade Garments manufacturers andexporters Association (Prgmea), ijaz A Khokhar garmentexports had declined by at least 15 percent. He said that theproduction of garments had declined between 35 percentand 40 percent because of persistent shortages of electricityand gas. He said that labourers had become 30 percentmore expensive; adding to the overall cost of production,making domestic products uncompetitive in global markets.He said that despite the presence of lucrative opportunities,local investment had completely stopped.

KSE bulls rule over Asia

ISLAMABAD

APP

Prime minister raja Pervez Ashraf onWednesday instructed the Finance ministry toprovide 4.5 million dollars to Pakistan inter-national Airlines Corporation (PiAC) on prior-ity, after fulfilling necessary formalities.

The Prime minister while chairing a meeting to re-view the performance of PiAC, assured its managementthat he would favourably consider conversion of rs 8billion loan by the federal government into equity.

The Prime minister directed theministry of Finance to workout a

plan for rescheduling of loans ofrs 147 billion owed to differentbanks by PAiC, to ease their fi-nancial situation. He laudedthe business plan worked outby PiAC and observed that hesaw a ray of hope for PiAC’sturnaround and improve-ment in its services. ThePrime minister said thegovernment would extendall possible assistance tothe PiAC management toregain its status worthy ofa national carrier.

He expressed the hope that the PiAC managementunder its new leadership would bring about markedchanges in the organization in shortest possible time,so that the people could feel the difference. The Primeminister appreciated the initiative of PiAC to carry Ha-jjis from iraq, myanmar, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,enabling them to perform Hajj. However, he observedthat these operations should in no way create any causeof complaints for Hajjis travelling from Pakistan.

Chairman PiAC Air Chief marshal (retd) raoQamar Suleman in his presentation briefed the Primeminister on the salient features of the business planworked out by the new management in line with direc-tions and policy guidelines given by the President andthe Prime minister of Pakistan.

On the current financial and operational problemsfaced by PiAC, he said that fuel cost and cost of financ-ing were eating away a substantial part of the annualrevenue of rs 117 billion. He proposed short term,medium term and long term plans to resolve the prob-lems being faced by PiAC. The Chairman said the busi-ness plan had been prepared with a view to rationalizeexpenditure on one hand while endeavouring to opti-mize revenues on the other. He requested the Primeminister to convert the federal loan of rs 8 billion loaninto equity and allow roll over of rs 147 billion loansdue to various banks. He also requested for an imme-diate assistance of 4.5 million dollars for acquiring air-craft on dry lease.

PM asks Finance

Ministry to

release $4.5m for

PIAC’s uplift

Raja gears up to turnPIA’s fortunes around

Pakistan conjures up

10-year high equity

return, beats rest of

the Asian markets

hands down

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02

Thursday, 2 August, 2012

Major Gainers

CoMPANy oPeN HIgH Low CLoSe CHANge TuRNoVeRUniLever Pak 7755.00 8000.00 7750.00 8000.00 245.00 80Rafhan Maize SPOT 3525.00 3649.00 3649.00 3649.00 124.00 20Colgate Palmolive 1192.06 1251.65 1245.00 1251.65 59.59 100Bata (Pak) Limited 675.00 700.00 667.00 700.00 25.00 3,800Shezan Inter. 250.21 262.00 259.99 262.00 11.79 300

Major LosersUnilever Food 2966.25 2850.00 2850.00 2850.00 -116.25 40Mithchells Fruit 347.48 359.00 333.00 337.95 -9.53 4,500Shell Pakistan Ltd. 124.00 126.50 120.80 120.96 -3.04 31,500Pak.Int.Cont SD 154.57 154.57 150.00 152.00 -2.57 10,100Murree Brewery 126.24 126.24 122.51 124.00 -2.24 4,400

Volume LeadersMaple Leaf Cement 6.36 7.36 6.25 7.33 0.97 17,926,000D.G.K.Cement 46.21 47.53 46.12 47.43 1.22 12,893,500Fauji Cement 6.15 6.33 6.15 6.26 0.11 9,137,000Lafarge Pakistan 4.87 5.10 4.86 5.06 0.19 6,397,500Jah.Sidd. Co. 15.34 15.70 15.21 15.36 0.02 4,161,000

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 94.6497UK Pound 147.9091Japanese Yen 1.2113euro 116.4475

Dollar EastBuy SeLL

US Dollar 94.10 94.90Euro 115.44 116.50Great Britain Pound 146.36 147.66Japanese Yen 1.1948 1.2052Canadian Dollar 93.32 94.66Hong Kong Dollar 11.98 12.15UAE Dirham 25.58 25.78Saudi Riyal 25.08 25.23Australian Dollar 98.15 100.47

Business

LAHORE

ONLINE

THe Lahore Chamber of Commerce andindustry while expressing deep con-cern over awful prolonged load shed-ding, has demanded of thegovernment to withdraw immediately

the exemption of loadshedding being enjoyedby ViP grid stations other than hospitals andsensitive installations.

“The govt. would not be able to controlloadshedding unless and until the exemptiongiven to the ViP entities is withdrawn. We arenot talking of hospitals and sensitive installa-tions.” in a statement issued here, the LCCiPresident irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that how thepeople sitting on the helm of affairs and bu-reaucracy could feel gravity of the situationwhen they are enjoying uninterrupted electric-ity supply through these ViP grid stations.

“They will work on war footing to enhancethe power generation when they will face 14 to

18 hours loadshedding in a day”, he added.The LCCi President said that government

has not shown any seriousness in solving theunprecedented energy crisis that has forced thefasting people to take to the streets to draw theattention of the President of Pakistan, thePrime minister and the ministers towards thispathetic situation. “it should be an eye-openerfor the government that not only the opposi-tion, but allies are also registering their protestagainst loadshedding in National Assemblyand Senate”, irfan Qaiser Sheikh said.

He said that the private sector was engineof the growth and in the developed countries itis facilitated to the maximum but in Pakistancircumstances is quite different.

irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that LCCi hasrepeatedly warned the government of mas-sive lay-offs and industrial closures if it failsto immediately stop power outages but thegovernment has miserably failed to controlthe situation.

The LCCi President said that government

would not be able to control the situation trig-gered by the demonstrations and strikes calledby the angry industrial workers against theirretrenchments as a result of these power out-ages. “How the government would establish itswrit and from where it would collect revenuesto run its day-to-day affairs when the industrialwheel is coming to a grinding halt.”

The LCCi President said that the govern-ment should understand that economic wellbeing is a must for democracy. Unemployment,price-hikes, industrial closures always givesbirth to lawlessness and anarchy.

Therefore, the government should un-derstand the ground realities and reset itspriorities regarding provision of electricityto the industry.

irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the industryneeds continuous supply of electricity to keepthe units operational and to complete the ex-port orders well within the given timeframe butonly because of the shortage of electricity theexports are not up to the mark.

A mini bull stampedeLSE up 10.23 points

LAHORE: The Lahore Stock exchange onWednesday witnessed bullish trend bygaining 10.23 points as the LSe-25 indexopened with 3659.16 and closed at 3669.39points. The market’s overall situation alsocorresponded to an upward trend as itremained at 6.019 million shares to closeagainst previous turnover of 2.198 millionshares, showing an upward move of 3.820million shares. While, out of the total 86active scrips, 25 moved up, 41 remainedequal and 20 shed values. PakistanPetroleum Limited, Lucky Cement Limitedand D.G.Khan Cement Company were majorGainer of the day by recording increase intheir per share value by rs 3.90, rs 2.72 andrs 1.20 respectively. iCi Pakistan Limited,engro Corporation Limited and Arif HabibCorporation lost their per share value by rs6.91, rs 1.50 and re 0.53 respectively. APP

Dollar slips as centralbanks huddleWASHINGTON: The dollar lost groundagainst the euro, yen and the Swiss francTuesday, as traders awaited news frommeetings of the Federal reserve and theeuropean Central Bank. Analysts began towonder if the central banks would providesubstantial monetary stimulus, despiteremarks last week by european Central Bankchief mario Draghi, as US data pointedtowards a possible pick-up in activity. “Wethink there is plenty of scope fordisappointment,” said Paul Dales at Capitaleconomics. “We doubt the Fed is ready tosanction a third round of large-scale assetpurchases today, while the eCB’s bark couldprove louder than its bite,” he said. Draghihad pledged to do whatever was necessary toprotect the euro. in foreign exchange deals,the euro rose to $1.2298 from $1.2259 inNew York late monday. AGENCIES

SBP starts operations to supplyfresh currency notesISLAMABAD: TheState Bank ofPakistan (SBP) hasstarted the supply offresh currency notesto the general publicfrom Wednesdaywhich will continue till last working day ofthe holy month of ramzan. The State Bankwill issue fresh currency notes particularly ofsmall denominations rs10 to rs100 tocommercial banks depending upon theirbranch network. The Bank has planned toissue only one packet each of rs10 and rs20person to the visiting general public andaccount holders. The new currency notes canbe obtained from commercial banks as wellas the Central Bank. ONLINE

Urges govt to withdraw power cut exemption given to VIP grid stations

PTCL launches first telecomservices in new Margallahousing society

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Com-pany Limited (PTCL) has commenced telecommu-nications services in the newly developedMargalla View Housing Society, Islamabad. PTCLis the first telecom operator to commencetelecommunications services in the area, by de-ploying its network and ONU in Margalla ViewHousing Society located in Sector D-17 of Islam-abad in a record time of six months following anagreement with the Society. PTCL Regional Gen-eral Manager Islamabad, Nadeem A. Awan inau-gurated the services in a colorful ceremonyhosted by President of the Margalla View HousingSociety Mr Raja Ilyas. More than 200 residents ofthe area specially attended the ceremony tothank PTCL for commencement of services beforetime and praised PTCL for its immaculate serv-ices. On the first day of launch, PTCL installedmore than 100 double play packages, which in-cludes free monthly on-net call minutes andBroadband Internet. All triple services includingFixed-Line, Broadband Internet and Smart TV arenow available in the area.PRESS RELEASE

Rozee.pk conducts a survey onthe Pakistani job marketLAHORE: Labour force survey of Pakistan paintsquite a hunky-dory picture: 6% unemploymentrate in the previous year, which makes one won-der, where is the lucky 94%? ROZEE.PK Pak-istan’s leading job portal in its recent surveydraws a linear trend over past two years for theapplications received per job posting in various

functional areas. Approximately 8.14 million jobapplications were analyzed to determine which ofthe functional areas invited the most attention forthe users and whether the respective field cre-ated enough opportunities to meet the supply.Talking about the survey Monis Rahman, CEORozee.PK said, “The purpose of the survey is toenlighten all the prospective job-seekers to tapinto the market gaps that are under-supplied andto inform prospective employers about the levelof attractiveness the job’s functional area repre-sents to the job-seeker.” ROZEE.PK’s survey ana-lyzes 63 such unique functions where employersare seeking labor and where they are not. 46% ofthese are under the threat of being over supplied(excessively in some instances) by labor force.Functional areas including Accounts & Finance,Procurement, Sales and Training & Developmenthave shown a consistent oversupply of labor overthe years and will continue to do so. PRESS RELEASE

Bahria Dastarkhawan servingfree Iftari to thousands daily

LAHORE/ RAWALPINDI: Keeping its decade oldtradition alive, Bahria Dasterkhawan is servingfree Iftari meals to thousands of fasting poor andneedy fellow countrymen, nationwide this Ra-mazan. Known for providing free meals twice aday to over one hundred thousand people daily,Bahria Dasterkhawan has made special arrange-ments this year as well to make sure that freeand quality iftari is been served at all the BahriaDastarkhawans nationwide. In addition to regularBahria Dasterkhawans, the management has setup special Ramazan Dasterkhawans so that maxi-mum guests may be able to reach and get free

Iftari. The Iftari meals at Bahria Dasterkhawancomprise of all the essential nutritional elementslike fruits, dates and main course meal to caterall the fasting needs. The Iftari disbursementstarts at 5:45pm to cater to the increasing num-ber of Iftar guests every day. The officials ofBahria Dasterkhawan expressed their pleasure onthe number of people being served everydayfrom their service and maintain that it’s a bless-ing by Almighty Allah on Bahria Town for whichthey are always thankful. PRESS RELEASE

NBP, Merchantrade launch NBPForee Cash, Foree Transfer services KARACHI: Acknowledging the needs of PakistaniDiaspora in Malaysia for sending money to theirloved ones in Pakistan, National Bank of Pakistanand Merchantrade Asia SDN BHD (Merchantrade),a recognized remittance service provider inMalaysia, have launched NBP Foree Cash and NBPForee Transfer remittance services in this auspi-cious month of Ramadan which will further facili-tate the celebration of Ramadan/Eid festive. “NBPis one of the largest players in the remittancemarket of Pakistan and the remittance arrange-ment with Merchantrade is another milestone toestablish its goal,” said Khalid Bin Shaheen. He ex-pressed the hope that the bank is constantly work-ing to enhance its services and expand its networkall over the world to achieve greater customer sat-isfaction. The amount remitted from Malaysia canbe collected from any of the NBP nationwide 1277branches. In order to receive Cash Remittance, itcan instantly be collected via NBP Foree Cash,even without having a bank account. NBP ForeeTransfer offers credit to the individual accounts inover 1200 online branches. PRESS RELEASE

No policy to regulate healthcare in Pakistan, expertsKARACHI: Screening of cholesterol levels in chil-dren may be helpful in reducing risks of heart re-lated problems in later age, a study by institute ofU.S. guidelines aimed to help prevent and treatcondition in children that put them at risk forheart-related problems. The U.S guidelines are en-dorsed by the Academy of Pediatrics, while panelalso suggests that all U.S. children should get

blood tests for high cholesterol as early as agenine. The state of Pakistan’s public sector healthservices is at best abysmal. Over stretched andunderfunded there is no policy in place to eitherregulate health care nor is there any policy to en-sure industry development and growth. It is impor-tant to remember that Pakistan has a very youngpopulation; some seventy percent population ofPakistan is under thirty years of age. PRESS RELEASE

Standard Chartered first halfprofit up 9% to $3.95bnKARACHI: Standard Chartered PLC today an-nounced a rise of 9 per cent* in both incomeand profits to US$9.51 billion and US$3.95 bil-lion respectively for the first half of 2012. Thisrepresents a tenth consecutive record first halfof profit growth. The diversity of our incomefrom a range of countries, products and servicescontinues to underpin our success. Growth inour footprint markets of Asia, Africa and theMiddle East remains robust and our extensivenetwork across the major global trade and in-vestment flows continues to provide a keysource of competitive advantage. We remainstrongly differentiated. One example is our abil-ity to step up investment spend to grab the longterm growth opportunities we see across Asia,Africa and the Middle East. PRESS RELEASE

CORPORATE CORNER

LCCI has had enough of the VIP culture

KARACHI: MCB Bank donated Rs 1 million to Alshifa Trust,Business Head CBBG North MCB Bank Zargham KhanDurrani presenting the cheque to President Al-shifa TrustEye Hospital General Hamid Javaid.

KSE approves formal listing of Aisha Steel KARACHI: Karachi Stock exchange (KSe) has approved theapplication for formal listing and quotation of shares of AishaSteel mills Ltd on completion of all relevant listingrequirements. According to KSe here Wednesday, the trading inthe shares of Aisha Steel on the ready board will commence fromAugust 6, 2012. The opening price of company’s share will beoffer price (rs 10 per share). The shares of the company hadalready been declared as eligible shares by the CentralDepository Company Ltd (CDC). APP

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