10 BUSINESS
Thursday, 19 March, 2015
KSE fallS by ovEr 800 pointS on forEign SElling rEportS KARACHI
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STAFF REPORT
EPORTS of a big foreign fund selling its Pakistan holdings took a heavy toll on the stock market on Wednesday, with the benchmark index recording the biggest single-day drop in six months. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)-100 Index declined 2.5%, or 817.28 points, to close at 31,524.98 points. A broker said panic selling on Wednesday was in response to the massive offloading of shares on the Karachi bourse by an American hedge fund in recent weeks. “Miami-based American hedge fund, Everest Capital, has resorted to heavy selling. I suspect its net sales amount to up to $70 million in the last month or so,” he said while requesting anonymity. Net outflows of foreign portfolio investment since the beginning of the year have been $108.2 million. Net selling by foreign portfolio investors in February alone amounted to $62 million, which is the largest net
outflow since July 2013. It means net offloading of shares by Everest Capital should account for more than half of the total outward flows of foreign portfolio investments from the KSE since January 1. The source said Everest Capital had to sell major stakes in the Karachi stock market after its bet on the Swiss franc went wrong, resulting in heavy financial losses for the company. Most of the hedge funds operated by the Miami-based investment house have already been shut down following the recent appreciation of the Swiss franc against the euro – something Everest Capital had betted
Export sector needs foreign direct investment: Pasha
heavily against. KSE Managing Director Nadeem Naqvi said foreign funds have been offloading their holdings from emerging and frontier markets in view of the expected monetary policy shift in the United States. Investors around the world initially expected the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in September. In view of improved employment numbers, however, analysts now expect the interest rates to go up as soon as in June. “The dollar has gained strength and the outflow of investments from emerging economies is accelerating,” Naqvi said. In his daily market com-
ptCl signs agreement with nESpaK
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has inked an agreement with NESPAK for deployment of PTCL infrastructure and provisioning of services in NESPAK Housing Society. The partnership shall enable residents of NESPAK housing society to experience the state-of-the-art telecommunications services of PTCL including Voice Telephony, Broadband Internet, SmartTV as well as EVO Wireless Broadband internet services. PTCL is already providing services in Phase-I of the society. The agreement was signed by Nausherwan Ajmal, PTCL Senior Business Manager, Faisal Town and Amjad A Khan, President NESPAK Housing Society in the presence of Naeem Shahbaz Ul Haq, EVP Central Zone PTCL and Nasir Mehmood Bajwa, PTCL Regional General Manager, Lahore Telecom Regional South along with other senior officials from PTCL and NESPAK. Naeem Shahbaz Ul Haq, Executive Vice President (EVP), Central Zone PTCL while speaking at the occasion said, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with NESPAK housing society. PTCL remains committed towards improving lifestyle and empowering people to achieve more through its futuristic and diversified products and services”. PTCL is Pakistan’s largest integrated ICT service provider and is serving the nation since 1947. The Company’s cutting-edge technology and powerful array of telecom services, including Voice Telephony, Fixed/Wireless Broadband, Digital Television, Carrier & Wholesale, Satellite Services and Data Centers serve the connectivity needs of millions of consumers and businesses nationwide. PRESS RELEASE
AGRI CREDIT DISBURSEMENT SURGES TO RS 288.7B, SAYS SBP KARACHI STAFF REPORT
KARACHI: Noted economist Prof Dr Hafeez Ahmed Pasha said that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) must be invested in export sector of Pakistan which would certainly bring the prosperity of growth trend in economy. He was addressing on the second day of international conference on “Structural Reforms for Inclusive Development” which was organised by Applied Economic Research Center in University of Karachi. Chairing the third session of conference, he referred the example of India where FDI had limited pathway to invest so as to avoid the bad impact on economy. However, the FDI had been invested in every walk of business in Pakistan except export sector which had been causing the vulnerability of economic condition. He simply raised the question to the researcher, “why FDI had never been invested in export sector of Pakistan?” Dr Hafeez Pasha said that China had been contributing 60% investment into Pakistan but the lack of long-term policy would create predicaments for the development of human and economy. More than dozen economists read their research paper to the conference. While presenting the research paper on “Examining the Relationship between Inequalities in Gender Wage and Economic growth in Pakistan”, Asghar Ali said that economic growth could be effected by the gender wage differential through the cost of production. STAFF REPORT
mentary, Elixir Securities analyst Faisal Bilwani said nervous investors are expected to continue tracking foreigners’ activity while the upcoming monetary policy announcement will likely help support declines. “We don’t see aggressive local buying until clarity on flows direction… yield plays will sustain sell-offs and are expected to continue to weather the panic in the broader market,” he wrote. The share of Colgate Palmolive gained 4.9% during the day to close at Rs1, 837. The biggest turnover was recorded in Pak Elektron, Fauji Cement, Bank of Punjab and Engro Corp. Trade volumes clocked up at 208 million shares while the value traded amounted to Rs11.6 billion. Shares of 357 companies were traded on Wednesday. At the end of the day, 39 stocks closed higher, 307 declined while the value of 11 stocks remained unchanged. Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs788.3 million during the session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
CORPORATE CORNER
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Wednesday said that during the first eight months of current fiscal year (Jul-Feb 2015), the banks have disbursed Rs 288.7 billion which is 57.8% of the overall annual target of Rs 500 billion and 32.3% higher than disbursement of Rs 218.3 billion made during the corresponding period last year. The outstanding portfolio of agri loans has increased by Rs 34.2 billion - from Rs 273.4 billion to Rs 307.6 billion at end of February 2015 as compared to same period last year. Five major banks as a group have disbursed Rs 150.9 billion or 59.8% of its annual target and two specialized banks (ZTBL & PPCBL) also disbursed Rs 51.5 billion or 50.7% of their targets of Rs 101.5 billion. Fifteen domestic private banks collectively disbursed Rs 64.9 billion or 56.2% against their target of Rs 115.6 billion. Seven microfinance banks have disbursed Rs 18.9 billion or 67% of their annual targets, however; the
four Islamic banks as a group have already surpassed their annual targets by disbursing Rs 2.5 billion against the target of Rs 2.3 billion during the period under review. Amongst the five major banks, MCB has achieved 76.3% of its annual target, UBL achieved 72.2%, HBL 66.6%, NBP 46.2% while ABL could achieve only 43.1% of its individual annual target. Under the specialised banks category, ZTBL disbursed Rs 46.1 billion or 51.3% against its target of Rs 90.0 billion while PPCBL disbursed Rs 5.4 billion, 46.9 %, against its target of Rs 11.5 billion during the period under review. Within 15 domestic private banks, Bank of Khyber has achieved 86.9%, Faysal bank achieved 72.3%, Bank Alfalah 53%, Bank Al Habib 48.3%, NIB bank 47.5%, Summit bank 45.4%, Sindh Bank 45%, Silk Bank 43.5 %, Soneri Bank 43%, Bank of Punjab 36.6% while Askari Bank could achieve only 35% of their annual targets during Jul-Feb 2015, however, Standard Chartered Bank has disbursed Rs 3.8 billion against its annual target of Rs 2.5 billion for 2014-15.
NEPRA decides to reduce power tariff by Rs 2.08 per unit ISLAMABAD: The NEPRA has decided to scale down electricity tariff by Rs 2.08 per unit. As per media reports, the NEPRA authority said: “The decision has been taken for reduction in the tariff of electricity. Recommendation has been made for slashing power tariff by Rs 2.08 per unit.” The power distribution companies had requested NEPRA that cost of production of electricity had witnessed fall in the month of January in the wake of fall in the cost of furnace oil. Therefore, tariff of electricity per unit be curtailed by Rs 2.08 for benefiting the consumers. The impact of reduction in power tariff will be passed on to the consumers in the month of January under fuel adjustment surcharge. STAFF REPORT
ISLAMABAD: Askari Bank Limited has signed an agreement with Ufone for provision of Upayments services to its account holders. Jamal Eddine Trache, chief officer Contracts and Procurement Ufone, and Asim Bashir, country head Alternate Delivery Channels Division Askari Bank exchange documents. PR
KARACHI: Satoshi Melcata, Sony Mobile Japan, Talla Aslam, Marketing Head Inovi, and Zeeshan Mayanoor at the launch of SONY’s New Xperia E4 Dual at Amma Tower Karachi on Wednesday. STAFF PHOTO
Major Gainers COMPANY colgate Palmolive service Ind.ltd siemens Pak. Atlas battery habib bank Xd
OPEN 1837.00 840.00 985.00 706.00 185.26
HIGH 1837.00 898.00 985.00 727.00 188.00
LOW 1750.00 840.00 932.00 696.06 184.01
CLOSE CHANGE 1837.00 87.00 898.00 23.00 957.50 7.50 727.00 2.81 187.64 2.39
TURNOVER 2,040 100 80 300 53,400
9850.00 1190.00 950.00 530.00 1102.00
9850.00 1170.40 912.10 508.04 1070.00
9850.00 1171.41 927.71 508.07 1085.11
-457.50 -60.59 -31.92 -26.70 -25.05
20 560 7,750 44,850 14,950
52.84 29.99 10.28 280.75 17.10
50.20 28.70 9.31 267.09 15.82
50.23 29.02 9.60 268.33 15.82
-2.61 -0.94 -0.55 -12.81 -1.00
15,027,500 13,525,000 11,060,000 9,988,300 9,439,500
Major Losers Rafhan maize sPot Exide (PAk) hinopak motor Ferozsons (lab) Xd Indus motor coXd
9850.00 1186.00 950.00 529.50 1102.00
Volume Leaders
FRANcE, GERmANy, ItAly to joIN chINA-lEd INFRAstRuctuRE bANk PARIS AGENCIES
France, Germany and Italy have announced plans to join the Chinese-led development bank — AIIB, drawing concern in Washington which views the institution with scepticism. The three European countries want “to become founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)”, they said in a statement. The $50 billion (47 billion euro) AIIB has been feted by Beijing as a way of financing regional development, but it is seen as a potential rival to US-based institutions such as the World Bank. Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have declined to become founding members — but within a week, Europe’s four biggest economies have signaled plans to join. London last Thursday announced its ambitions to be the first Western country to join
the bank, in a move to bolster relations with China. At a joint press conference with Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai on Tuesday in Berlin, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said his country along with Italy and France “want to bring our long experience … to help the bank build a solid reputation”. “We want to make a contribution to the positive development of the Asian economy, in which German companies are actively taking part,” he said. But Europe’s move was met with a warning of caution from the United States. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Washington’s main concern was whether the bank would “adhere to the kind of high standards that the international financial institutions have developed”. “Will it protect the rights of workers, the environment, will it deal with corruption issues appropriately. “Our point all along has been that anyone joining needs to ask those questions at
the outset and I hope before the final commitments are made anyone who lends their name to this organisation will make sure that the governance is appropriate,” Lew told Congress. China and 20 other countries signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the Beijing-headquartered bank in October. Responding to reports of European interest in the bank, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: “We welcome countries to join the AIIB as prospective founding members.” “The AIIB is an open and inclusive multilateral investment institution,” the spokesperson said, adding that “participation by countries outside the region will intensify the extensive representativeness of the AIIB.” Twenty-one countries had initially signed the bill, which included: China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Pak Elektron Fauji cement Xd b.o.Punjab Engro corp jah.sidd. co.
52.75 29.99 10.23 280.00 16.80
Interbank Rates usd GbP jPy EuRo
PkR 101.8251 PkR 150.1615 PkR 0.8396 PkR 107.9346
Forex uk Pound sterling Euro us dollar canadian dollar Australian dollar japanese yen saudi Riyal u.A.E dirham china yuan
BUY
SELL
149.75 108.5 102.35 80 77.75 0.849 27.2 27.85 16.15
150 108.75 102.6 80.25 78 0.865 27.45 28.1 16.25