profit.com.pk Friday, 18 May, 2012

KARACHI ISMAIL DILAWAR

tHE analysts foresee the economicmanagers seeking a fresh bailout loanpackage from the international Mone-tary Fund (iMF) as the country’s exter-

nal account keeps showing worrisomedeterioration for first 10 months of the currentfiscal year, FY2011-12.

the central bank reported thursday that thecountry’s current account deficit widened to 1.7percent of the GDP, accounting for $ 3.394 bil-lion, during July-aprilFY12 against a surplus of$ 466 million or during the corresponding pe-riod last year.

the economic observers believe that pres-sure on the external account was due to large ex-ternal debt payment and increased currentaccount deficit and the suspended aid and assis-tance from international donors.

Pakistan’s negative trade with the world ap-pears to be a major reason for the widening ofthe current account as gap between the coun-try’s exports and imports increased by $4.184billion to $ 12.683 billion compared to lastyear’s $ 8.499 billion.

During the review period the exports wererecorded at $ 20.474 billion, upping marginallyby $ 14 million against $ 20.460 billion of July-aprilFY11.

the growth in the imports, however, re-mained robust and ballooned to $ 33.157 billionfrom $ 28.959 billion of same period in FY11 de-spite lower aggregate demand at home.

the central bank data show that duringJuly-aprilFY12 foreign investment in thecountry nosedived by a huge 65 percent to ameager $ 563.3 million, depicting a sharpslump of over $ 1.031 billion compared to $1.595 billion invested by the foreigners duringsame months in FY11.

the disbursements by the donors and loan-ers abroad also set in the red zone contractingto long-term loans worth $ 1.588 billion against$ 1.674 billion of last year.

Of the total amount disbursed to Pakistan,during the review months, $ 1.510 billion cameas a project loan and $ 78 million as a programloan. the short-term receipts, including com-mercial loans and those coming from islamicDevelopment Bank, remained zero.

“(the) current account deficit is expected toremain in the range of $ 4-4.5 billion versus$3.5-4 billion expected in FY12,” viewed ana-lysts at topline Research. in percentage termsthese estimates are 1.6 to 1.8 percent and 1.5 to1.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

the financing of such a huge deficit, the an-alysts believe, would remain a major challengefor the cash-strapped government, especiallygiven the current poor state of foreign inflows.

the analysts said an under-pressure exter-nal account, coupled with government’s ever-in-creasing budgetary borrowings, would compelthe state Bank to maintain the 12 percent inter-est rate intact even in FY13. the Pak Rupeewould keep feeling the heat of a weaker externalaccount throughout next fiscal year.

On sBP’s Balance of Payment list worker re-mittances appear to be the only comfort zone forthe economic mangers.

the central bank counted receipts fromoverseas Pakistanis higher by $ 1.831 billion at$ 10.877 billion during the first 10 months. thisshows over 20 percent growth over same periodof FY11 when Pakistani compatriots had remit-ted $ 9.046 billion.

Having peaked to a record $ 11 billion lastyear, the analysts forecast the remittances tocross the $ 14 billion mark in next financial year.

“Comfort to external account would likelycome from workers’ remittance that is expectedto cross $14 billion in FY13,” said the analysts.

the economic observers expect some respitecoming from a possible dip in international oilprices, improved foreign inflows, materializa-tion of the Coalition support Fund and 3G auc-tion licenses and the government’s decision tore-enter the fresh iMF program.

“Re-entry into iMF program to avert exter-nal account crisis,” is the option widely beingforeseen by the analysts in the current scenario.

RESCUE OPERATION

IMF helps those whocan’t help themselvesg IMF might bail us out as current account gap widens to 1.7 per cent of GDP

Spain beset by bank crisis, recession, bondpressure Page 02

NBP tops agri financing chartsKARACHI: national Bank of Pakistan (nBP) is leading inagriculture financing among other banks and financialinstitutions in the country by lending Rs 33.013 billionamong nearly 176,372 farmers between July 2011 to March2012, against a target of Rs 32.400 billion by sBP for ninemonths. according to nBP, the state Bank of Pakistan (sBP)has fixed an indicative lending target of Rs 280 billion forthe financial year 2011-12, out of this nBP’s share is highestafter ZtBL.as per sBP report, nBP’s total outstandingduring one year has exceeded by Rs 9.763 billion, rising fromRs27.670 billion in March 2011 to Rs 37.433 billion in March2012. nBP outstanding is higher by Rs 9.763 billion ascompared with the total exceeded amount of outstanding byall five other banks including ZtBL which stood at Rs 2.283billion in March 2012. this becomes possible due todynamic leadership of President-Qamar Hussain, GroupChief Dr.asif Brohi. Out of our total 1,277 domesticbranches, 875 are involved in catering the needs of farmers.national Bank of Pakistan is at the top of ‘five’ commercialbanks of Pakistan, as it offers complete range of commercialbanking services along with agriculture services to farmersunder one umbrella. nBP has disbursed Rs 42.4 billion inagriculture credit financing among nearly 252,000 farmersduring July 2010-June 2011, against a target of Rs 41 billion.the percentage of non-performing loans of nBP was about5 percent as on December 31, 2011, compared to 15 percentaverage nPL’s of commercial banks in agricultural.the otherdistinguishing feature of nBP is the competitive mark uprate, which is lower than the rate being charged by othercommercial banks. the loans disbursed can be divided intotwo categories, production and development loans. Underthe first category loans are disbursed mainly for theprocurement of seeds, fertilizers & pesticides etc. and thesecond category is for the purchase of tractors, farmmachinery & implements and construction of modernstorage, cattle farms, poultry farms facilities etc. nBP takespride in being a key partner in government’s program ofachieving food security and poverty alleviation.nBP takespride in being key partner on Government’s program ofachieving food security and poverty alleviation. NNI

AGRARIAN BILLBOARD

ISLAMABADNNI

sMaLL and Medium Enterprises(sMEs) have been playing a key role inproviding impetus to economicdevelopment, therefore

Government should allocate sufficientamount of budget for sMEs development tostimulate the growth of trade andindustry in the country.Pakistan is spending thelowest budget on sMEdevelopment as comparedto other nations of the world,thus, Government should provideenough funds in upcoming budget of2012-13 for strengthening sME sectorof the country, Yassar sakhi Butt,President islamabad Chamber ofCommerce and industry (iCCi) saidthis during a meeting with privatesector representatives of sMEsector. iCCi President said thatsMEs sector should be given priorityto make it as an effective tool foreconomic development andGovernment should not showreluctance in allocating funds forsMEs development. He said thatGovernment has only providedRs.40million for sME Development

support Fund in FY2011-12 which should beincreased up to substantial level as thepromotion of sMEs entails enhancement of thecompetitiveness of the economy and generationof additional employment. He cited theexample of Brazilian economy, which wasspending $7.24 per capita on its sME agency.President iCCi was of the view our country is

facing economic crunch and the optimumway of getting out of these difficultiesis to facilitate the maximum growthof sMEs as promotion of sMEs wouldlead to creation of more job

opportunities, proper utilization ofyoung talent, emergence of thrivingmiddle class and reduction in

poverty, ultimately leading to theacceleration of economic activities inthe country. Yassar sakhi Butt

stressed that the real challenge of thegovernment is to set the sME policy in away that these enterprises could betransformed from static to dynamic units.

iCCi President further said thatGovernment should revise taxationstructure for sMEs as both india andChina attempt to lower sME taxationto help the economy grow and in turnboost investor confidence. thus, ourGovernment should also draw asimilar map of the taxation structurefor sME sector, he maintained.

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Pakistan has become the onlynon-oil producing country inthe world where bulk of the

electricity is being produced throughoil run power generators that has keptthe energy rates volatile to the extentthat it is fast crushing the economicactivity. severely criticizing another 16per cent hike in power tariff, the LCCiPresident irfan Qaiser sheikh said thatit is a futile exercise and would not bedoing any service to the governmentunless and until it makes a plan tocover inefficiencies in the powersector. irfan Qaiser sheikh saidthat besides controlling linelosses and electricity theft,the government would haveto chalk out a plan to convertoil based power generators tocoal as in india more than sixty percent of electricity in being producedthrough coal and what it is gettingthrough furnace oil in not morethan six per cent. the LCCiPresident opined that governmentmove is bound to increase theincidence of electricity pilferage thatalready is 25 per cent of the 22 per

cent line losses and eating up Rs 50-75billion. the LCCi President said thathow the industry would remaincompetitive at such a high price ofelectricity which is one of the basicindustrial raw materials. We alreadyhave the highest tariff in our region asin india, the electricity tariff forindustry is 10.5 cents, in Bangladesh10.75 centsand in sriLanka it

is again 10.75 cent whereas in Pakistantariff is already 15 cents meaning that45 percent higher as compared to theregion. With this massive andunprecedented increase, we will havedouble the tariff of electricity what theregional countries are offering to theirtrade and industries leaving Pakistantotally uncompetitive and unviable inthe international market place. “thecountry had already lost a number ofinternational markets to China,Bangladesh and india due to high costof doing business and the decision toincrease power tariff would make thePakistani goods more uncompetitive.”He said that the business communitywas unable to understand that insteadof taking measures to control line

losses and enhance cheap powergeneration up to capacity,

the policies are beingevolved to add to the

miseries of the businessdoing people. irfan Qaiser

sheikh said that negative growthwitnessed by the Large scale

Manufacturing sector was indeed aneye opener and a wake up call to thegovernment. He said that theindustry needs cheaper electricity tokeep the units operational and to

complete the export orders well withinthe given timeframe but only becauseof the shortage of electricity theexports are not up to the mark.

ICCI, LCCI are The Avengers!‘Iron out creases in the budget’ LCCI goes Hulk over power tariff hike

g ICCI calls for sufficient budget for SME development g Pakistanallocates lowest budget share to SMEs as compared to other nations

g Castigates 16pc hike in power tariff g Gnashesteeth owing to lack of planning regarding oil

PRO 18-05-2012_Layout 1 5/18/2012 12:01 AM Page 1

news02Friday, 18 May, 2012

MADRIDREUTERS

tHE spanish treasury hadto pay around 5 percent toattract buyers of three- andfour-year bonds. the

longer-dated paper sold with a yieldof 5.106 percent, way above the 3.374percent the last time it was auc-tioned.

“this ... fits the pattern of recentsales, with the spanish treasury suc-cessfully getting its supply away butat ever-higher yields,” said RichardMcGuire, rate strategist at Rabobankin London. “this unfavorable trendlooks set to remain firmly in place ...Ultimately, this ratcheting up ofyields will likely require some form ofoutside intervention,” McGuire said.

spanish Prime Minister MarianoRajoy said on Wednesday his gov-ernment, struggling to reduce itsbudget deficit, could soon find it dif-ficult to fund itself affordably on thebond market unless the pressureeases. His finance minister, CristobalMontoro, meets heads of finance ofall 17 regions later to review theirbudget plans which are a crucialplank of the drive to lower publicdebt. the European Commissionwarned last week that stubbornlyhigh debts in the regions and the wel-fare system would prevent spainmeeting its deficit goal of 5.3 percentof GDP this year. spain’s 10-yearyields have spiked back above 6 per-cent, which investors view as a pivotpoint that could accelerate a climb to7 percent, a cost of borrowing widelyseen as unsustainable even thoughMadrid has sold well over half itsdebt needs for the year.WORRY LIST: top of the heavilyindebted country’s worry list is abanking sector beset by bad loans,the result of a property boom thatbust in spectacular fashion. ElMundo newspaper reported that cus-tomers at troubled Bankia sa hadtaken out more than 1 billion euros($1.3 billion), equivalent to around 1percent of the lender’s retail and cor-porate deposits, over the past week.the government denied there hadbeen an exit of funds, but the bank’s

shares dropped more than 20 per-cent at one stage, extending the pre-vious session’s loss after it delayedpublishing fourth-quarter results.

“it’s not true that there is an exitof deposits at this moment fromBankia,” said Economy secretaryFernando Jimenez Latorre. the gov-ernment last week took over Bankia,the country’s fourth-largest lenderwhich holds around 10 percent ofspanish deposits, in an attempt todispel concerns over its ability to dealwith losses related to the 2008 prop-erty crash. “the majority of outflowscame after the chairman resignedlast week, but i think once the bankwas taken over by the government,depositors calmed down a bit,” saidone Madrid-based trader. “the shareprice fall has to do with disappointedretail investors dumping the stock.”spain’s deposit guarantee fund guar-antees 100,000 euros per customer.“i have two accounts with Bankiaand up to now i have not closedthem. i’m not even considering it,”said Jose ignacio Gonzalez, 42. “itmust be more secure with the back-ing of the state, it has a guarantee.”the problem for Madrid is that prop-erty losses facing banks are not yetquantifiable, given prices are likely tofall further. the government told thesector last week to set aside another30 billion euros in provisions,prompting some analysts to saymuch more would need to be done.

a government spokeswomansaid the bidding to select an externalauditor to value real estate assets

across the banking sector was stillopen, denying Oliver Wyman andBlackRock had been chosen assources previously told Reuters.RECESSION AND CONTA-

GION: While Greece, facing freshelections which could hasten its exitfrom the euro zone, has dominatedheadlines, uncertainty over the finalcost of spain’s banking reform hasraised the prospect that it could re-quire an expensive internationalbailout, a bill the euro zone would bestretched to cover. stuart Gulliver,head of Europe’s biggest bank HsBC,reflected on his biggest external con-cerns.

“it’s absolutely how the eurozone plays out and whether Greecestays in, and/or whether firewalls arehigh enough to protect spain andfrankly whether markets take thingsinto their own hands before (Greekelections on) June 17,” he said. Offi-cial data confirmed the spanisheconomy shrank by 0.3 percent inthe first quarter, putting it back intorecession and facing a prolongeddownturn as the government cutsspending in an attempt to wrestledown its budget deficit.

Unemployment is already run-ning close to 25 percent, rising toaround 50 percent among the young.the government will publicizebudget plans from 17 powerful au-tonomous regions later on thursday,possibly rejecting some of them ifthey do not make deep enoughspending cuts and giving local offi-cials 10 to 15 days to redo them.

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

PiaF has termed the increase in electricityprices a consipiracy to make the country atrading place as manufacturers would not be

able to pay such a high prices of power and becomeuncompetitive in the international Market. in apress statement issued here thursday, ChairmanPiaF Engr. sohail Lashari strongly critisizedunjustified increase in electricity tariff and urgedthe government to withdraw the raise in the largerinterests of trade and industry that had alreadybeen facing multiple internal and externalchallenges. He said that electricity prices inPakistan were already higher than the othercountries of the region and the new hike wouldpush the crisis-hit industrial sector to the wall. Hesaid that how Pakistani merchandise would be ablewin buyers in the international market when theirprices would be higher than the same quality goodsof other countries. He said that according to thereports more than 40 per cent electricity was beingstolen but instead controlling the theft & the linelosses the authorities were busy in making furtherincrease in electricity prices while it is a proven fact

that the raise in the tariff always leads to increase inthe incidence of power theft. He said that thecountry would become a trading hub if appropriatemeasures to ensure proper supply of cheapelectricity to the industry are not taken but nobodybothered to even listen to the voice of trade andindustry. He said that the flight of capital hadintensified in the recent years only because offlawed government policies especially relating toenergy and infrastructure. Had a litten been givento these areas, there could have been no relocationof industrial units to Bangladesh and Malaysia.Hesaid that country was facing a huge energy deficitsince last few years. Massive loadshedding hadcrippled the industrial activities, thousandsindustrial units had closed down or relocated whilemillion industrial workers have lost their jobs butinstead of initiating any mega power projects,government remained busy to increase powertariff.He said that the price increase would badlyaffect the agriculture sector of Pakistan, which wasbackbone of our economy and feeding to more than70 per cent of the population. sohail Lasharidemanded of the government to withdraw recentincrease in power tariff and take measure toenhance cheap power generation in the country.

ISLAMABADNNI

tHE securities and Exchange Commissionof Pakistan (sECP) on thursday asked thewomen entrepreneurs to register their

businesses as companies to ensure permanence,credibility, longevity, and stature.Registration of businesses will help promotion,documentation of economy, and contributetowards national development, the financialregulatory agency said.speaking at a workshop organised by islamabadWomen Chamber of Commerce and industry(iWCCi), Executive Director Mr nazir ahmedshaheen, Joint Registrar anas noman,Muhammad akram Qureshi and MuhammadQasim said that a company is the most enduringlegal corporate structure having unlimited life.Capital can be easily raised by a company byselling shares and acquiring loans, they saidadding that companies have better access to

local, regional and global markets.Women should not loose opportunities toredefine their future as larger organizationsprefer to deal with companies rather than non-corporate entities, they said.sECP officials said that female contribution toeconomy is great while many have left footprintswhere ever they have gone.at the occasion, the participants discussed hostof reasons including weaknesses in laws andattitude of tax officials which is keeping themfrom registering their firms.they said that women prefer sole-proprietorshipdue to cumbersome procedures and absence ofincentives. Lauding the role of sECP, founderPresident, iWCCi samina Fazil suggested thatall the discrepancies should be removed to bringour cost of doing business closer to the regionalcountries. “We are ready to play our role inincreasing the tax revenues which will createemployment opportunities, improve servicesand boost economy”, said samina.

It’s a masterpiece conspiracy!

FRANKFURTREUTERS

aGreek exit from the euro zone could exposethe European Central Bank and thecurrency bloc it seeks to protect tohundreds of billions of euros in losses,

landing Germany and its partners with a crippling bill.a Greek departure would take Europe intouncharted legal waters. the size of the burden othereuro zone states could bear gives them a powerfulincentive to keep Greece in the currency club.With most of Greek’s private creditors having takenheavy writedowns as part of the country’s second, 130billion euros bailout, it is estimated that the ECB,international Monetary Fund and euro zone nationshold approaching 200 billion of its debt. “in the event ofan exit, they (Greece) will default. and the loss givendefault will probably be very high, high enough toeliminate the ECB’s capital,” said andrew Bosomworth,senior portfolio manager at asset manager Pimco.“they might need recapitalization from governments,who are not exactly in the best position to provideadditional capital.” those are not the only losses theECB and its national shareholders might face as isexplained in detail below.Even once Greece had left the currency club, the coststo the rest of the euro zone would continue to mountas it would probably be compelled to avert a completeGreek collapse and wider contagion.“Large-scale ECB intervention would be necessary tostabilize the system, along with intervention fromGermany, the European stability Mechanism (EsM),its predecessor the European Financial stabilityFacility (EFsF) and the iMF, potentially costing

hundreds of billions of euros,” said Georgiostsapouris, investment strategist at Coutts.the ECB, which has its own paid-in capital of 6.4billion euros, is essentially a joint venture between the17 euro zone national central banks (nCBs).Combined, the Eurosystem of euro zone central bankshas capital and reserves of 86 billion euros.the national central banks would divide up any lossesbetween them according to the ‘capital key’ - the ECB’smeasure of countries’ stakes in its financing based oneconomic size and population. Germany would bear thebiggest loss, some 27 percent of the total. France wouldtake a big hit too. a Greek exit from the euro zone couldcost the French taxpayer up to 66.4 billion euros andsaddle the country’s banking system with 20 billioneuros in lost loans, according to a study published ontuesday by the iEsEG school of Management in Lille.smaller countries with less robust national centralbanks than the German Bundesbank would likely bestill harder hit in relative terms.“the ECB and some of the nCBs with little loss-absorbing capital and reserves relative to their shareof how a loss would be allocated across theEurosystem would potentially see their capital andrevaluation reserves written off,” Bosomworth said.However, with fresh Greek elections called for June17 and an anti-bailout leftist party ahead in the polls,some within the EU’s corridors of power wonderwhether the show is worth keeping on the road. “it’sgoing to hurt, absolutely. But is it going to be lethal?”one EU diplomat said. “We have two bad choices, butone is worse than the other.”TRIPLE WHAMMY: the ECB and national centralbanks are exposed to Greece in three main ways: viaGreek sovereign bonds the ECB holds, via Greek

collateral they hold in return for ECB loans and viaGreece’s liabilities for transactions over the eurozone’s taRGEt2 payments system. the ECB hasspent about 38 billion euros on Greek governmentdebt with a face value of about 50 billion euros.Under a scenario described in German weekly Derspiegel, the euro zone’s EFsF bailout fund could beused in the event of a Greek default to continuefunding Greece’s debt obligations to the ECB.However, this would eat into the resources of the‘firewall’, eroding its capacity to help other euro zonestates which might well need to be protected if aGreek exit sparked contagion. an alternative scenariocould see the national central banks turning to theirgovernments to recapitalize the ECB. But going cap inhand to politicians for money they are desperatelyshort of risks undermining the ECB’s independence.ECB loans to Greek banks are another way thecentral bank is exposed but in this case, althoughthe ECB conducts these medium- and long-termlending operations (MROs and LtROs), the fundsare distributed via the national central banks andcarried on their balance sheets.a Bank of Greece financial statement on its websiteshowed that as of January 31 it had lent out some 15billion euros in MROs and 58 billion euros inLtROs - a total of 73 billion. it was holding 143billion euros in assets eligible as collateral for eurozone monetary policy operations.Berenberg Bank economist Christian schulz said thatin the event of a Greek exit these loans and most of thecollateral may be converted into a new Greek currency.“the ECB/Eurosystem would not bear the riskanymore,” he added, noting that the Bank of Greecewould instead be left with the - likely devalued -

loans and collateral.TARGET RISK: But any funds Greek banks hadtaken using ECB loan operations that had subsequentlyfound their way out of Greece could pose a problem.these would be added to the Bank of Greece’s liabilitiesunder the taRGEt2 payments system. the Bank ofGreece and other peripheral euro zone countries havebuilt up liabilities within the euro zone’s cross-borderpayment system, taRGEt2, due to a net outflow ofpayments to other countries in the bloc, a trendexacerbated by the debt crisis. the Bank of Greece’sfinancial statement showed that as of January it wascarrying taRGEt2 liabilities of 107 billion euros - asum that has likely remained around that level sinceand which represents a big potential problem for theother euro zone central banks. “taRGEt2 is the biggestrisk if they really take that loss,” said schulz, addingthat a Bank of Greece collapse would leave centralbanks remaining in the euro zone with a loss.“But it’s far from clear whether the full taRGEt2balance would be what Europe would lose,” he added.the ECB could monetize any net taRGEt2 loss in theevent of a Greek euro exit by printing money but thatwould come with an inflationary effect unpalatable topolicymakers in Germany, the bloc’s most powerfulplayer. Beyond the accounting implications for eurozone central banks is the systemic impact a Greek euroexit would have on the bloc’s banking system. savers inother periphery countries are likely to take flight. “if theysee that Greek savers have seen their euro savingsovernight being converted into drachma, which coulddepreciate by 50-70 percent, then it would be a fairlysimple hedge strategy for them to take out some of theirsavings and put them into Luxembourg, or poundssterling, or swiss francs,” said Bosomworth.

Time to get yourself registered!

POWER PREDICAMENTHASTA LA VISTA

WHAT TIME IS IT?

Spain beset by bank crisis,recession, bond pressure g PIAF makes its opinion about electricity prices very clear indeed

g SECP asks female entrepreneurs to register businesses as companies

Greek exit could cost eurozone 100s of billions of eurosGREEK TRAGEDY

PRO 18-05-2012_Layout 1 5/18/2012 12:01 AM Page 2

news

Friday, 18 May, 2012

03

Pearl Continental Hotel Rawalpindiholds the KIDS Carnival, 2012

RAWALPINDI: General Manager of the Pearl Con-tinental Hotel Rawalpindi Mr. sheharyar Mirza alongwith the Children and families inaugurated the ‘kidsCarnival’ at the Pearl Continental Hotel, Rawalpindi.the General Manager told the media “We alwaysfocus and try our level best to provide a family envi-ronment and entertainment to the visitors”. in thiscasual carnival for children, the Hotel had put up over25 game booths where the guests could try their luck,have their fortunes told, win gift hampers throughlucky draws or sit down to a festive dinner. “Livemusic and dancing with big band Henle & the Loops,DJ tracks, Magic show, Frog Gymnastic, JugglingPerformance, Puppet show, Face painting, tall &short man, Jumping castle was also featured”. thePublic Relations Manager Mr. asad shah told themedia “We Believe in kids – and this is Carnival toRevisit Your Childhood as well”, He added “the Hotelhas Planned a series of events Which will be of inter-est to Public, including Qawwali, naat khuwani andFashion shows. Furthermore, Public Relations Man-ager, Mr. asad shah told the media that top celebri-ties and artists of the Film and television industry willalso be brining in their children to the Festival andwill express their views. PRESS RELEASE

Lotte Pakistan partners with WWF toenhance environmental sensitivity KARACHI: Lotte Pakistan Pta Ltd. joins handswith WWF Pakistan to spread greater environmentalawareness among the young students and providethem an opportunity to develop a deeper understand-ing of key environmental issues the region is facing atthe moment. as a sole sponsor of WWF-Pakistan’sEco internship Programme 2012, Lotte PPta will befacilitating WWF Pakistan to teach young studentshow they can conserve the environment and helpthem instill greater concern for environment and nat-ural resources in their social circle as well. WWF-Pakistan’s Eco internship Programme is an annual

activity that aims to enable students to generate aninsight into the eco dynamics and challenges of theecosystem, broaden students’ scope as a responsiblecustodian of valuable natural resources, inculcate asense of civic responsibility in students and give themthe opportunity to become an official ambassador ofWWF-Pakistan and solicit support of individualmembers. this is the second time in a row that LottePPta is sponsoring this summer activity that will takeplace during June and July 2012 which aims to inductaround 2,000 students in this programme. speakingabout Lotte PPta’s partnership with WWF, Mr. asifsaad, CEO Lotte Pakistan Pta Ltd said, “Lotte PPtais committed towards the environmental develop-ment of Pakistan. PRESS RELEASE

PM Gilani inaugurates PTCL’s 1 millionBroadband celebrations

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister syed Yousaf Raza Gi-lani inaugurated Pakistan telecommunication Com-pany Limited (PtCL) celebration of achievingPakistan’s first one million Broadband customers aspart of the national commemoration of Worldtelecommunication & information society Day 2012held at Pak-China Friendship Center, islamabad.“telecommunications and it are bringing encourag-ing economic dividends and inspiring lifestyle choicesfor the people of Pakistan,” said Prime Minister Gilani,who was the Chief Guest of the mega event and exhi-bition organized jointly by PtCL and Ministry of it &telecom to mark the Wtis Day 2012. this year’stheme for Wtis Day is ‘Women, Girls & iCt’. “therole of iCts matter immensely for gender equality andempowerment of women,” said Prime Minister Gilani.“iCts are a force multiplier for girls’ education, en-abling them to build their future on a level-playingfield with their male counterparts.” the event was alsoaddressed by Federal Minister of it & telecom, RajaPervaiz ashraf; Federal secretary it & telecom, Fa-rooq ahmed awan; and PtCL President & CEO, Walidirshaid. the event was attended by senior governmentand PtCL officials, a large number of students, mem-bers of the civil society and media. “achieving the onemillion Broadband customers mark is yet another his-toric milestone for PtCL,” said Mr. PRESS RELEASE

Seminar on Islamic finance due on May 18-19KARACHI: Country’s first international awarenessseminar on islamic Finance and Expo will be held on18 May here at karachi Expo center. the mega eventis being organized by publicity channel with the sup-port of state Bank of Pakistan and planned and di-rected by Ernst and Young Ford Rhodes sidat Hyder,Mehmood tareen Project Director told to newsmenhere.He said the objective of the event was to createawareness about islamic banking, investment, taka-ful, mutual funds, modarba, musharka and financingamong masses and the corporate sector as well. act-ing President Younus Bashir would inaugurate theseminar and Expo, scholar Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rah-man will preside over the ceremony. atiqu ur Rah-man, Omar Mustafa ansari, Mehmood tareen willalso address on the occasion.tareen said during thetwo-day event financial sector, banks, universitiesand publishers would display their services and prod-ucts in the exhibition. PRESS RELEASE

Pfizer Pakistan leads the way on World Hypertension DayKARACHI: World Hypertension Day was celebratedwith renewed spirit, as Pfizer Pakistan lead the waywith over 60 nation-wide activities, engaging morethan 1800 healthcare professionals, to spread theawareness regarding hypertension and its impact onour society. the World Hypertension Day (WHD) isglobally observed every year on 17 th May, as part ofthe initiatives of the World Hypertension League(WHL). Pfizer Pakistan successfully organized nation-wide activities, with the objective of promoting publicawareness of hypertension and to encourage citizensof all countries to prevent and control this silent killer,in line with the objectives of the WHL. Hypertensionis a disease that remains undiagnosed in most casesand can cause severe complications including Heartattack and stroke. Hypertension is the leading causeof heart diseases, stroke and chronic kidney diseases.the situation in Pakistan is grave as compared to de-veloped countries. Even when it is diagnosed, the ad-equate treatment is not provided or taken.Compliance rate is very low & it is estimated that only3% of the hypertensive population in Pakistan is ade-quately controlled. Globally, 7 million people dieevery year because of high blood pressure and cur-rently, 1 billion people worldwide are hypertensive,which is likely to be increase to 1.5billion by 2025. aspart of the WHD activities, numerous walks, aware-ness sessions, symposiums, and screening campswere arranged by Pfizer Pakistan. the theme for theWorld Hypertension Day 2012 is ‘Healthy Lifestyle –Healthy Blood Pressure’. PRESS RELEASE

Tetra Pak seminar creates awarenessabout hygienic milk choicesLAHORE: tetra Pak, the world leading food pro-cessing and packaging company, recently organiseda health awareness seminar titled, Best Milk Feed-ing Practices during Childhood. Over 250 students,senior faculty and final year medical students at al-lama iqbal Medical College (aiMC) attended theseminar. Prof. Dr. Javed akram, Principal of aiMCwas the chief guest on the occasion and was accom-panied by Prof. Dr. tariq Bhatti, professor of paedi-atrics and Head of Department at aiMC, Dr. naeemZafar, President and Honorary Chief Executive atProtection and Help of Children against abuse andneglect (PaHCHaan). “Osteoporosis is a debilitat-ing disease but it is possible to take preventivemeasures at an early age to mitigate the risk of os-teoporosis in later life. PRESS RELEASE

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Major Gainers

Company Open High Low Close Change Turnover

UniLever PakXD 7052.00 7194.00 7050.00 7157.00 105.00 609Nestle Pakistan Ltd. 4004.57 4084.99 4000.50 4025.82 21.25 17Shezan Inter. 184.20 193.41 182.00 193.28 9.08 27,912National Foods 171.22 179.78 162.66 178.40 7.18 17,664Pak Services 148.92 156.00 148.92 155.99 7.07 505

Major Losers

Unilever FoodXD 3245.45 3384.00 3100.00 3115.00 -130.45 69Rafhan MaizeXD 3000.00 2900.00 2851.00 2900.00 -100.00 535Sanofi-AventisXD 195.09 199.00 185.36 185.83 -9.26 781Pak.Int.Cont SD 157.81 154.99 149.93 150.00 -7.81 993,165Pak Gum & Chemical 123.75 120.25 117.78 117.78 -5.97 4,555

Volume Leaders

P.T.C.L.A 16.12 16.39 15.45 15.59 -0.53 19,305,347D.G.K.Cement 41.20 42.80 40.63 42.50 1.30 17,241,897Bankislami Pakistan 8.97 9.97 9.00 9.95 0.98 13,017,947Jah.Sidd. Co. 15.91 16.37 15.35 15.94 0.03 11,744,617Engro Foods Ltd. 60.58 63.60 59.75 63.60 3.02 7,529,681

Interbank RatesUs Dollar 90.8626Uk Pound 146.0162Japanese Yen 1.1369Euro 116.6858

Dollar EastBuy Sell

US Dollar 91.50 92.10Euro 116.26 117.16Great Britain Pound 145.96 147.05Japanese Yen 1.1333 1.1417Canadian Dollar 90.53 91.72Hong Kong Dollar 11.64 11.80UAE Dirham 24.86 25.02Saudi Riyal 24.38 24.50Australian Dollar 90.51 92.65

KARACHI, STAFF REPORT

stOCks closedbearish on thintrades as investorawaited federal

budget proposals forcorporate sector. Viewed by ahsan Mehanti,Director at arif Habibinvestments Limited. thekarachi stock Exchange(ksE) 100-share indexdeclined 17.99 points or 0.13percent to close at 14,063.08points as compared to14,081.07 points of theprevious session. the ksE30-share index shed 02.48points to close at 12,274.18points as compared with12,276.66 points. marketturnover was down to 143.055million shares after openingat 146.000 million shares.the overall marketcapitalization declined 0.04percent and traded Rs 3.593trillion as against Rs 3.597trillion. Losers outnumberedgainers 170 to 140, while 74

stocks were unchanged. Mehanti added “Fall in globalstocks and commodities onGreek debt worries andlimited foreign interestaffected the sentimentsdespite expectations for Pak-Us relations on resumption ofnatO supplies.” the kMi 30-share was downby 13.37 points to close at24,337.43 points from itsopening at 24,350.80 points.the ksE all-share indexclosed with a loss of 6.17points to 9,875.69 points asagainst 9,881.86 points. P.t.C.L.a was the volumeleader in the share marketwith 19.305 million shares asit closed at Rs 15.59 afteropening at Rs 16.12, down by51 paisas. D.G.k Cementtraded 17.241 million sharesas it closed at Rs 42.50 afteropening Rs 41.20 shed by1.30 paisas. Bankislami Pakistan traded13.017 million shares as itclosed at Rs 9.95 from itsopening at Rs 8.97,decreasing Rs 1.02 paisas.

Jahangir siddiqi Companytraded 11.744 million sharesand closed at Rs 15.94 asagainst its opening at Rs15.91, gaining Rs 0.3 paisas.Engro Foods Limited traded7.529 million shares as itclosed at Rs 63.60 ascompared to its opening at Rs60.58, increasing Rs 3.02paisas. He said that the statusquo for Pakistan in frontiermarket index in MsCi semiannual review, fall in localcement prices and concernsfor outstanding circular debtissues in pakistan energysector played catalyst role inbearish sentiments at ksE. On the future market, theturnover recoverd remarkablyby over 3 million to 16.017million against 13.050 millionshares of Wednesday. theUnilever Pakistan XD andnestle Pakistan Limited, upRs 105.00 1and Rs 21.25, ledhighest price gainers while,Unilever Food XD andRafhan Maize XD down Rs130.45 and Rs 100.00respectively, led the losers.

Profit-taking bearspull down KSE

UNDER EIGHTEENGOING GOING GONE…

KARACHI: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Board of ManagementChairman Sohail Wajahat Siddiqui delivering a presentationon the general energy Scenario in Pakistan at an EnergyConference held at a local hotel. PRESS RELEASE

KARACHI: 1,500 young scientists from around theworld have gathered in Pittsburgh, Pa. at the IntelInternational Science & Engineering Fair 2012. Theywere selected from 446 affiliate fairs in 68 countries,regions and territories. Seen in the photo is SyedShahzed Hussain with his project ‘Creating ArtificialDomains’ representing Pakistan at the finalcompetition. PRESS RELEASE

RE$ERVE$$LIDEg Dollar reserves down to

$16.103 billionKARACHI

STAFF REPORT

the country’s dollar reservesdepleted by $ 313 million or1.9 percent during the week

that ended on May 11 due todecreasing reserves of the centralbank.The State Bank of Pakistan Thursdayreported that the country’s holdingsof the greenback shrank to $ 16.103billion against $ 16.416 billion of lastweek. During the week in review thecentral bank held $ 11.784 billionwitnessing a decline of $ 194 millionover $ 11.978 billion the bankpossessed last week.Also contracted were the reserves ofthe commercial banks that stood at $4.319 billion, down $ 119 millioncompared to $ 4.438 billion of theprevious week.The central bank attributes such upand downs in the banks’ reserves toroutine deposit and withdrawal ofcash by the account holders.

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