Tuesday, 15 January, 2013

LSM grows 6.5%in November,2.38% in five months

ISLAMABAD

APP

The country’s Large Scale Manufac-turing (LSM) has registered positivegrowth of 2.38 percent during thefirst five months of the current fiscalyear over the corresponding period ofthe last financial year. On a year-on-year basis, the LSMgrew by 6.5 percent during the monthof November 2012 when compared tothe same month of last year, accord-ing to the data of Pakistan Bureau ofStatistics (PBS). The overall QuantumIndex Numbers (QIN) of LSM stoodat 105.66 points during July-Novem-ber (2012) against 103.20 points dur-ing July-November (2012). During the period under review, in-dustries monitored by Oil CompaniesAdvisor Committee (OCAS) registeredincrease of 0.63 percent growth whilethe indices of Ministry of Industriesgrew by 0.48 percent and that ofProvincial Bureaus of Statistics by1.27 percent. The manufacturingitems that witnessed growth duringthe first five months of the currentyear over the same period of last yearincluded food beverages and tobacco(7.96%), Iron and Steel products(16.80%), coke and petroleum prod-ucts (9.86%), paper and board(33.68%), chemicals (0.17%), rubberproducts (30.02%), pharmaceutical(6.17%), non-metallic mineral prod-ucts (3.35%) and textile (0.01%).The manufacturing items that wit-nessed decrease in production duringthe period included fertilizers(14.54%), electronics (13.62%),leather products (5.10%), wood prod-ucts (19.18%), engineering products(10.95%) and automobiles (8.73%).Meanwhile, the industrial growth dur-ing November 2012 increased by 6.50percent but decreased by 1.12 percentwhen compared to the growth of No-vember 2011 and October 2012 re-spectively. The manufacturing itemsthat witnessed growth in November2012 over the same month of last yearincluded beverages and tobacco(6.09%), Iron and Steel products(35.80%), coke and petroleum prod-ucts (21.36%), paper and board(49.64%), chemicals (0.46%), rubberproducts (19.64%), pharmaceutical(9.91%), non-metallic mineral prod-ucts (13.60%) and textile (1.09%). Themanufacturing items that witnesseddecrease in production duringNovember included fertilizers(3.88%), electronics (35.31%), leatherproducts (20.02%), wood products(22.72%), engineering products(1.37%) and automobiles (8.60%).

BERLIN

Online

INDIA will continue to be a focusof the European Community’shumanitarian assistance in2013, but five major globalhotspots of crises, including

Pakistan, will receive the largest chunkof over 661 million euros aid earmarkedfor this year, the European Commissionhas said.

Vulnerable populations subjectedto “long-enduring crises” in India andeight other countries in Asia, Africaand Latin America will receive a partof the funds allocated under the com-mission’s humanitarian aid plan for2013, which has been just adopted inBrussels.

For the victims of “forgotten crises”,who receive little media attention, theEU is “often the only major donor”, thecommission said in a press statement.Besides India, several communities inBangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Myan-mar, Algeria, Yemen, Colombia and theCentral African Republic will also re-ceive the EU assistance.

“The only new crisis on this year’slist is the one caused by conflict and in-ternal displacement in Pakistan,” thestatement said.

Pakistan will receive a total of 42million euros humanitarian assistancefrom the EU.

The crises in the five main regions ofthe EU’s humanitarian aid operationarise from years of conflict, food short-ages or both, the commission said.

It will finance the aid operations inthe Sahel region, including its relief ef-forts in war-torn Mali, with an allocationof 82 million euros while 80 millioneuros has been earmarked to help easethe sufferings of the population caughtup in the conflict in the Sudan and SouthSudan.

The commission also allocated 54million euros to cope with the emer-gency situation created by an escalationof the conflict in the Democratic Repub-lic of Congo while the EU’s relief effortsin Somalia will be financed with an allo-cation of 40 million euros.

Geographically, Sub-Saharan Africawill receive the largest share of the EUhumanitarian aid amounting to 344.5million euros or 52 per cent of the com-mission’s overall commitments.

The funds will flow to its partnerorganisations in the recipient coun-tries, which will implement the aidprojects.

In addition to the funds allocated tocope with the most obstinate humanitar-ian crises around the world, the com-mission will also keep reserve resourcesthis year to respond to unforeseen crisisand other emergencies.

The EU’s global humanitarian aid isallocated on the basis of an annualglobal need assessment, in which thecommission evaluates the aid require-ments of 140 developing countries interms of their vulnerability and recentoccurrence of a crisis.

In 2012, the commission identified68 countries as experiencing at least onehumanitarian crisis.

Pakistan to get 42m Euro aid from EU

ISLAMABAD

Online

A study conducted by US Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) said that opening of freetrade with India under Most Favourite Nation(MFN) will be an onslaught on local industry by In-dians, and the agriculture sector will suffer.

The study recommended that tariff quotamethod should be adopted for import of steel, iron,pharmaceutical and agriculture sector goods fromIndia under MFN status regime.

The report further revealed that in the global sce-nario, Pakistan’s export to India will grow. The re-port revealed that though India had not been given(MFN) status, Pakistan had already operated underit by liberalising 97 percent trade for Indian goods.

Commerce Ministry was required to conduct astudy regarding impact of liberalising trade withIndia before taking the decision to grant MFN status

to India. It had got the approval of Cabi-net to grant MFN status to India byDecember end 2012.

“But the study has been con-ducted in January 2013 whichexposed the flawed plan ofcommerce ministry to grantMFN status to India withoutgoing through any compara-tive analysis,” an official saidadding that USAID studyhad confirmed the concernsraised by all stakeholders in-cluding textile, industry andagriculture sectors.

According to a study conductedwith the technical assistance of USAIDto assess the impact of liberalising tradewith India following MFN status, Indian traderegime is more restricted for Pakistani exports. The

study noted that Pakistan had givenmuch more to India in allowing

items to export to Pakistan.“However, India has lib-

eralised only 43 percenttrade for Pakistani goodsand our major exports arenot being given preferen-tial treatment by the for-mer,” the renownedeconomist Hafeez Pasha

said in a report.The study recom-

mends that Pakistan shouldnot discontinue negative list

at all. It said the complete phaseout of negative list should be

avoided to protect the local industryand agriculture sector.

The report observed that agriculture sector was

a real issue for Pakistan to open for trade with Indiaunder MFN status and recommended that sensitivelist on agricultural goods should be expanded to pro-tect the major crops.

It noted that tariff on cotton import from Indiais zero but India had tariff restriction in this regard.The study also accepted that cotton was a genuineissue and recommended a quota system for Indiancotton exports to Pakistan should be introduced toprotect the farmer community.

It said there should have been parity in textiles.The report revealed that India was giving subsidy of$ 297 per hector whereas Pakistan gave $ 188 perhector. India is giving subsidy almost on all items in-cluding fertilizer and power.

The opening of trade for Indian industry will bean onslaught by Indian Industry and therefore thestudy recommended that “we should give a chanceto industry to survive under MFN status withIndia”.

Local industries to suffer from India MFN, says USAID

KARACHI

STAFF RePORT

Pakistani stocks closed lower on Mon-day amid uncertainty over the out-come of a large political protestplanned in the capital and protestsover sectarian killings in the financialhub of Karachi.

The market fell more than 100points in the morning session but re-covered during the day after theKarachi protests were called off.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s(KSE) benchmark 100-share indexended 0.01 per cent, or 1.53 points,lower at 16,633.18.

Around 31 million shares weretraded in Fauji Cement CompanyLtd, representing 36 per cent of thenumber of shares traded that day,said dealer Samar Iqbal at ToplineSecurities.

Fauji Cement was up 4.3 percent to 7.03 per share while infor-mation technology and communica-

tions company TRG Pakistan rose15.16 per cent to 6.00 per share.

Byco Petroleum fell 0.83 percent to 13.12 per share and Bank ofPunjab was down 0.57 per cent to8.76 per share.

In the currency market, the Pak-istani rupee ended weaker at97.30/97.36 against the dollar, com-pared to Friday’s close of 97.26/97.32.

Overnight rates in the money mar-ket rose ending at 9.40 per cent com-pared to Friday’s close of 9 per cent.

Cellular servicesuspension: PTCLregains its glory

ISLAMABAD

Online

Suspension of cellular service in thewake of law enforcement incidents hasincreased usage of PTCL land line serv-ices in the country. Cellular services sus-pension caused loss of billion of rupeesto cellular companies while on the otherhand it increased the importance ofPTCL land line network that remains theonly source of communication duringcellular services suspension. Earlier, millions of consumers in thecountry were passionate about mobiletelecommunication, its growth and pene-tration in the country and PTCL andother land line networks were beingunder estimated and their importancehad decreased. However, after the newphenomena adopted by the presentregime to stop telecommunicationthrough mobile network, have increasedthe importance of PTCL and large num-ber of mobile phone addicts have turnedtheir attention towards PTCL land linenetwork system. During suspension ofcellular networks major sectors includingmedia organisations, law enforcementagencies, health services, ambulancesand other departments are dependent onthe PTCL landline connections. The im-portance of landline number is evenmore in areas where cellular services arenot available at all. During a survey from people of differentwalks of life, people said it seemed im-perative that they should keep landlinenumbers of emergency services and im-portant professional and personal con-tacts updated to avoid any inconveniencein an emergency situation like this.

Stocks close lower, rupee weakens

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Tuesday, 15 January, 2013

Business

Sialkot exporters appreciate

DS-Concept

KARACHI: Sialkot-based exporters have appreciated the servicesprovided by DS-Concept to increase export turnover. The SialkotChamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) office-bearers said thisto German Consul General Dr Tilo Klinner who visited Sialkot. SCCIPresident Abdul Majeed, the vice president and other office-bearerstold the German consul general that Sialkot was the second largestsource of foreign exchange earnings after Karachi. Majeed also toldKlinner that Sialkot was renowned in the world for its sports goodsand surgical instruments. The SCCI official told Dr Klinner that DS-Concept, a German firm, was helping Sialkot’s exporters by providingimmediate post-shipment financing along with 100 percent invoiceinsurance. PReSS ReleASe

Coca-Cola pledges Rs 9.8m

to Kashf FoundationKARACHI: Following the success of the 2011/12 Coca-Cola Pakistanand Kashf Foundation partnership to promote women empowerment,Coca-Cola has extended its project appropriately titled “Women Eco-nomic Empowerment” for another year. A further grant of Rs. 9.8 millionwill be utilized for establishing sustainable income streams to economi-cally empower women through microfinance. The project intends to pro-vide direct financial access via soft loans to 350 female clients from SouthPunjab and Sindh, whilst simultaneously building support networks anddeveloping personalized entrepreneurial skills amongst the beneficiaries,to augment their business acumen. It is projected that within 2 years,these women entrepreneurs will already be seeing a 10% increase in theirannual income. Speaking about the Coca-Cola and Kashf Partnership,Rizwan U. Khan, General Manager, the Coca-Cola Export Corporation,Pakistan and Afghanistan stated: “At Coca-Cola we believe that womenare a vital pillar of society and an integral facet for the economic devel-opment of Pakistan. The Coca-Cola and KASHF Partnership serves as aprime example of empowering women and communities to help build asustainable tomorrow for the people of Pakistan.” PReSS ReleASe

Warid Telecom launches two interactive

mobile apps for its customersLAHORE:Warid Telecom, leading innovators in Pakistan’s telecom in-dustry, has launched two interactive mobile apps for its customers. Thelaunch of PakWheels and Hari Bati mobile applications is a key step byWarid Telecom towards service innovation. Warid has joined hands withPakWheels.com to bring car buying and selling on all Android mobilephones using version 2.1 and above. Customers can buy and sell cars andview price information of popular car models in Pakistan. The Pak-Wheels Android application will allow users to quickly and easily searchand locate used cars in their city and also enable them to put their carsup for sale. In addition to PakWheels, Hari Bati is a fascinating new mo-bile application by Warid Telecom developed in collaboration with Trainof Thought (Pvt) Ltd.; which has the ability to show street traffic on amap based interface. Allowing users to mark frequently visited routes

and receive constant updates regarding the traffic situation directly ontheir handsets. The application has an in-built notification system whichwill push alerts to the user when he or she is approaching a traffic jamso that the user can change course and avoid traffic. Both applicationsare free to download. Applications are only downloadable through aWarid GPRS connection. Once downloaded, updates on the app can bereceived using a wi-fi connection in addition to using GPRS. PReSS ReleASe

CORPORATE CORNER

KARACHI: The honorary trade adviser of the Thai government andPresident PTFA&BF, Arif Suleman presents a shield to the DeputyPrime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikulduring his recent visit to Pakistan. The Ambassador of Thailand inPakistan Marvin Tan-Attanawin, Consul General of Thailand inKarachi Wichai Sirisujin, Irshad Adamjee and Rehman Khan arealso present on the occasion. PR

(L-R) Fatima Nissa (Asst Manager Operations, DS-Concept),

Rafi-ul-Hasan (AVP, DS-Concept), Abdul Majeed (President,

SCCI), Shafiq-ur-Rehman (Finance Secretary, SCCI) and

Ikram-ul-Haq (Vice President, SCCI). PR

LAHORE: Bata Pakistan MD Muhammad Qayyum inaugrating

Bata’s flagship concept outlate at G-1 commercial market,

Johar Town. PR

Major GainersCompanY open HigH Low CLoSe CHange TuRnoveR

Nestle Pakistan Ltd. 4600.00 4800.00 4600.00 4775.00 175.00 620

Shezan Inter. 390.00 409.30 409.28 409.30 19.30 400

Clariant Pak 267.91 279.00 270.00 276.65 8.74 9,300

Millat Tractors Ltd. 600.37 619.90 596.00 609.03 8.66 44,400

Sunrays Textile 155.60 162.00 162.00 162.00 6.40 500

Major Losers

Bata (Pak) 1300.00 1277.00 1276.00 1276.00 -24.00 200

Attock Petroleum Ltd 507.01 505.00 500.00 500.48 -6.53 8,600

Philip Morris Pak. 120.83 119.98 116.05 116.77 -4.06 900

EFU Life Assr. 87.40 85.01 83.50 83.50 -3.90 2,000

Sana Industries 50.00 48.01 48.01 48.01 -1.99 500

Volume Leaders

Fauji Cement 6.74 7.08 6.61 7.04 0.30 31,315,000

TRG Pakistan Ltd. 5.21 6.09 5.10 5.98 0.77 11,534,500

Byco Petroleum 13.23 13.36 12.80 13.14 -0.09 3,880,000

Jah.Sidd. Co. 14.98 15.24 14.70 15.11 0.13 3,176,500

D.G.K.Cement 53.00 53.95 52.20 53.62 0.62 2,703,000

Interbank Rates

US Dollar 97.3583

UK Pound 156.9805

Japanese Yen 1.0885

Euro 130.2070

Forex RatesBuY SeLL

US Dollar 98.40 99.10

Euro 130.28 132.04

Great Britain Pound 156.73 158.81

Japanese Yen 1.0907 1.1045

Canadian Dollar 98.55 100.50

Hong Kong Dollar 12.43 12.70

UAE Dirham 26.65 26.96

Saudi Riyal 26.10 26.40

Australian Dollar 102.60 105.45

KARACHI

STAFF RePORT

ECONOMIC observers expectthe inflow of ever-increasingworker remittances to thecountry rise to a historic $ 16billion by the end of this finan-

cial year.“Home remittances continue to remain

upbeat reaching the level of USD 7.1 billionduring the first six months of FY13,” saidanalysts at InvestCap Research.

Terming it as one of the major support-ing tools for the current deficit, the remit-tances from expatriates, they said,continued its upward trajectory.

During the first half of FY13, remit-tances posted a colossal growth of 12.5%YoY to USD 7.12 billion, in absolute termsincreasing by USD 791 million.

However, on a monthly basis, the headregistered a growth of 11% reaching USD1.13billion in December 2012.

Such increase was however misleading,emanating from a low base effect of No-vember, 2012, rather than depicting an ac-tual increasing trend.

“The country witnessed a huge influx of

remittances, touching USD 1.37 b, in Octo-ber, 2012, due to the Eid factor,” viewedAbdul Azeem at the InvestCap Research.

Following this, the analyst said, remit-tances in November, 2012, remained ex-traordinarily depressed at the level of USD1.02 billion thus leading to a low base effectin December, 2012.

The huge chunk of remittances receivedfrom the Middle East continued to play asignificant role in the overall inflows intothe country.

Within this region, the major oil econ-omy, Saudi Arabia remained the key con-tributor with 28% weight in totalremittances; remittances from Saudi Ara-bia posted a growth of 18% YoY to USD 1.96billion during the first half of FY13. One ofthe strongest economies of the world, SaudiArabia continued to import employees fromPakistan, therefore, a positive impact wasobserved in remittances from this country.

Another region of the Middle East,United Arab Emirates also remained a keysource of remittances as it maintained 21%weight in total remittances from where theover all remittances increased by 3% YoY toUSD 1.46 billion in the first half of FY13.

Amongst the Western countries, USA

was the most important contributor, ac-counting for 16% share in the total homeremittances although the growth was flat(0.5% YoY) but inflow of USD 1.16 billionwas witnessed during the first six monthsof FY13. Furthermore, remittances comingin from the UK experienced massive growthof 38% YoY during the same period. UKranked second amongst the major contrib-utors to increase in remittances in the firstsix months of FY 13.

“We expect the consistent upward trendin remittances to provide support to thecurrent account (C/A) during the remain-ing period of FY13,” Azeem said.

However, he warned, IMF paymentswere likely to exert pressure on the currentaccount deficit, as the country has to payUSD 1.7billion during the second half ofFY13.

Although, lower imports and rising ex-ports continue supporting the trade deficit,in the latter half of FY13, we expect a sig-nificant draw back to be evident in the formof shortage of gas, absorbing any such pos-itives. We foresee such shortage to injureexports of the country, mainly the textilesector, being a major contributor to thecountry’s exports.

Remittances to swell by $16b by end of FY13

ISLAMABAD: The services trade deficit during July-November (2012-13)decreased by 78.91 percent as compared to same period of last year as itsexports surged by 41.6 percent with imports showing negative growth of2.11 percent during first five months of the current fiscal year. The services’exports from the country were recorded at $2.937 billion during July-No-vember against the exports of $2.074 billion during July-November (2010-11), showing growth of 41.6 percent, according to the data of PakistanBureau of Statistic (PBS). On the other hand, the imports of services intothe country during first five months of current year decreased by 2.11 per-cent by going down from last year’s imports of $3.255 billion to $3.186 bil-lion, the data revealed. Based on this data, the services trade deficit inNovember 2012 increased by 8.22 percent and 25.03 percent when com-pare it with October 2012 and November 2011 respectively. The exports ofservices during November 2012 were recorded at $346.19 million againstthe exports of $403.05 million in November 2011 showing a decrease of14.11 percent while imports during November 2012 edged up by 0.04 per-cent going up from $631.11 million to $631.34 million in November 2012.As compared to the exports of $470.76 million during October 2012, theexports during November 2012 decreased by 26.46 percent, while importsof services during November 2012 also decreased by 14.02 percent as com-pared to the imports of $734.25 million in October 2012. APP

Initial run of Byco’snew refineryKARACHI: Byco’s newly completed oil refinery success-fully completed its initial run of about 48 hours and wasable to produce high speed furnace oil (HSFO), high speeddiesel (HSD) and Naphtha according to the required speci-fications. An official said on Monday that this initial run wasconducted during the course of pre-commissioning and com-missioning activities. Following this activity, the new Refinerywill shortly be put to continuous 72 hours trial run. This is yet another milestone achieved which is a step for-ward towards smooth and safe commercial production, itwas further stated. Qaiser Jamal, the chief executive offi-cer (CEO) of Byco Oil Pakistan Limited, said that this is yetanother significant achievement by the Refinery’s Commis-sioning and Operations teams. The new refinery with a crude oil processing capacity of120,000 barrels per day will be the largest in the Country.Based on full throughput it is expected to produce on annualbasis about 1.6 million tons of HSFO, 2.4 million tons of HSDand 1.1 million tons of MS. As all these products are in deficitand are being imported therefore, production from this new re-finery will replace import and thus help save foreign exchangefor the country. APP

Services trade deficit shrinks to 78.91%

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