saturday, 23 June, 2012

Page 19

Dollar slipsin Asian trade

KARACHI

IsMaIL DILaWar

FORESEEInG the troubled econ-omy growing by a “notable” 3.7percent in the outgoing FY12,the central bank stressed the

pressing need for rebasing the country’snational income accounts in synchronywith the changing nature and compositionof current economic activities.

Further, while foreign financing had al-most dried up during the July-MarchFY12,the cash-strapped government borrowed amassive Rs 847.5 billion from domesticsources – primarily the banks – to bridgethe 4.3 percent budget deficit the countryfaced during the quarter in review. The bor-rowed amount is higher by Rs 147 billion or21 percent than the Rs 700.1 billion the gov-ernment had raised during the correspon-ding period of FY11. The huge fiscal deficit,the bank said, inflated the government’s do-mestic debts by a whooping Rs 1.2 trillion toRs 7.2 trillion during the review period.

The State Bank said the available datasuggested that the budgetary gap for the fullyear, July-JuneFY12, would exceed the re-vised target of 4.7 percent and that the over-all revenues had been lower than expected.

SBP, in its Third Quarterly Report forFY12, dubbed the continuous slump in for-eign and domestic investment, acute energyshortages and the persistently high fiscaldeficit as major risks to the macro-economy.

These negatives, the bank said, were asource of growing concern for the economicmangers and had all the potential to directly

stifle long-term growth prospect.REBASING INCOME ACCOUNTS: Thecentral bank said it was important that GDPdata should reflect the changing nature andcomposition of the country’s economic activ-ities. Adding that Pakistan Bureau of Statis-tics (PBS) was already in the process ofrebasing national income accounts. “We ex-pect that PBS would also consider releasingGDP estimates on a quarterly basis, which isnow a norm in emerging markets. It will helpget a more accurate and timely picture of thereal economy, which will allow for moreproactive policy corrections,” the SBP said. ECONOMIC GROWTH: About the eco-nomic growth, the bank said the expected3.7 percent growth during FY12 was higherthan the 3.0 percent realised in the previousyear, but less than the target of 4.2 percent.nevertheless, it said, this performance wasnotable given the considerable damage to

the cotton crop due to floods in August 2011;ongoing energy shortages; the rise in inter-national oil prices; and security concerns.WEAK MACRO INDICATORS: “Al-though Pakistan’s economy has shownsome recovery in terms of GDP growth, thekey macro indicators still remain weak,” theSBP said. The central bank said this 3.7 per-cent growth rate had also been more broad-based with a larger contribution from thecommodity producing sectors compared toFY11. Moreover, as in the past, growth hadbeen driven by domestic consumption, bothprivate and public, which was partially offsetby a decline in domestic investment and ex-ternal demand. The State Bank said thoughthe growth in current expenditure was lowercompared to the previous year, the govern-ment had enhanced its development spend-ing which should improve the country’slong-term growth prospects, besides creat-

ing financing pressures.PSEs BURDENING BUDGET: The SBPexpressed concern over operational effi-ciency of key Public Sector Enterprises(PSEs) that, it warned, were adding to thecash-strapped country’s fiscal burden.FISCAL DEFICIT FINANCING: Whileexternal financing dried up the governmentthe government relied more on domesticsources to finance the fiscal gap and bor-rowed Rs 847.5 billion in Jul-Mar FY12against Rs 700 billion of last year. “Such bor-rowing is inflationary and a risk to macro-stability,” the regulator warned. Currently,two acts, namely the Fiscal Responsibilityand Debt Limitation (FRDL) Act (2005) andthe newly amended SBP Act, provide guide-lines on overall debt stocks and borrowingfrom the central bank, respectively, the SBPsaid. The government’s greater reliance onshort-term borrowing, the SBP said, was cre-ating liquidity management problems for thecentral bank, and rollover and interest raterisks for the government. “LESS ADVERSE”: The SBP said devel-opments in Q3-FY12 in external sector wereless adverse than expected and that largerinflows of remittances and a lower tradedeficit explained this relative improvement.

The current account deficit during Jul-Mar FY12 was $ 3.1 billion, compared to adeficit of $ 10.0 million in the correspondingperiod last year, it said.FOREIGN INFLOWS: More impor-tantly, the expected inflows under CoalitionSupport Fund (CSF), the auction of 3G li-censes, and arrears from PTCL privatisa-tion, did not materialise during the quarter.

ISLAMABAD

aMEr sIaL

The lukewarm response of the Sindh government to thewind power investors has shifted a majority of interestedinvestors in the solar power to Punjab, where the provincialgovernment is more cooperative in providing land andother amenities, an official source said.

Punjab government, he said was very cooperative withregards to promote photovoltaic (PV) power projects in theprovince. Investors are approaching Punjab as the Sindhgovernment is totally reluctant to grant land for wind andsolar power projects.

He mentioned lack of infrastructure as another majorreason for the stalling of wind power projects in Sindh.While in the solar power the major hurdle had been the ini-tial cost; but considering the disparity in demand and sup-ply the investors were ready to invest as they could gainmaximum return on their investment.

Punjab government is interested in promoting solarpower in less developed areas but once some successfulmodels are available it could be used for pumping the waterthrough tubewells. Only recently the government has ap-proved a solar tubewell project.

According to the Alternate Energy Development Board,solar energy has excellent potential in Pakistan that receiveshigh levels of solar radiation throughout the year. Every day,the country receives an average of about 19 Mega Joules persquare metre of solar energy. It is available at a rate of 1000watts per square meter in the country. This can be convertedto DC electricity with the help of solar PV cells, which maybe used to pump water, operate fans, TV and telecommuni-cations directly during daytime. The electrical energy gener-

ated during the day time, can also be stored in deep cycle leadacid batteries which can be used at night to provide powerfor lighting, radio, Television and fans. The system will beuser-friendly and designed as a stand-alone system for eachhousehold, who will be trained to operate and maintain it.The user will only be required to switch on/off the system,as is done in normal home lighting systems. In addition,solar photovoltaic panels can generate enough electricity topump water from depth of 350 to 1000 feet.

Many of these villages are far from the main transmis-sion lines of the national grid and, because of their relativelysmall populations; it is usually not economically viable toconnect these villages to the grid. Solar energy, on the otherhand, has excellent potential in areas of Pakistan that receivehigh levels of solar radiation throughout the year.

Branchlessbankingcontinues tobranch outg Users transact

Rs 85b via branchlessbanking despite thebest efforts of thoseoh so mean banks

KARACHI

staff rEpOrt

While branchless banking attracts more andmore users, especially in the country’s un-banked rural areas, the limited banks’ au-thorisation to the agents is hindering itsexpansion. According to central bank’s quar-terly report on branchless banking, thebranchless banking had seen another quar-ter of growth on almost all fronts duringJuly-March FY12. Growth in the agent’s net-work and number of mobile wallets was 19percent and 14 percent, respectively,whereas the number and value of totaltransactions increased by 23 percent and 7percent, respectively. During the reviewquarter, more than 25 million transactionsworth Rs 85 billion or $ 938 million hadbeen processed through branchless bankingchannels. “The average size of transactionhas further reduced to Rs 3,367 showingthat technology is reaching the previouslyun-banked poor,” the SBP observed, addingthat the customers had transferred aroundRs 99 million through their mobile to otherm-wallet accounts, showing the adoption oftechnology by the common man. Rs 13.8 bil-lion government to person payments and Rs60 million salary payments had been dis-bursed during the quarter via mobile bank-ing. “The growth in number of transactionsis mainly due to the increasing volume of billpayments, person to person fund transfers,and airtime top-ups, which accounts for 42percent, 32 percent and 10 percent respec-tively,” the SBP said. Similarly, it said, thegrowth in value of transactions was againowed largely to P2P payments. All other cat-egories had either experienced slightly nega-tive growth or had contributed a small sharein total value. While considering share intotal value, all bulk payments constituted al-most 50 percent of the total value of transac-tions followed by P2P payments (36percent) and bill payment (12 percent).Growth has been observed in loan repay-ment transactions as Rs 312 million werecollected through BB agents. Both models,Easypaisa and Omni, were trying to increasetheir linkages with microfinance providersto allow microfinance borrowers to use BBchannels for repayment of loans. Moreover,volume of salary disbursement has also in-creased mainly due to Easypaisa’s arrange-ment with government organisations forsalary disbursement. Around Rs.13.8 billionhave been transferred on account of G2Ppayments through the existing agents’ basedbanking. However, the current 14 percentgrowth rate of m-wallets showed some slow-down compared to the last quarter when thegrowth rate was around 40 percent. Similartrend is observed in deposits value. “Theless-than-expected growth rate in m-walletsis owed to the fact that only 23 percent ofthe total active agents (around 24,101) areauthorised by banks to open the m-walletaccounts,” the central bank said. The num-ber of registered m-wallets has reached to1.03 million at the end of the quarter underreview in which the number of active m-wal-lets is about 53 percent. In addition, 5,573debit cards have also been provided to mo-bile account holders, indicating efforts tocreate value proposition in m-wallets. Thefast growing network of branchless bankinghas reached at 26,792 agents. This agents’network now has foot prints in 89 percentof total districts in the country. The BBmarket is ready for expansion as while theWaseela Microfinance Bank, a subsidiaryof M/s Orascom, has commenced its busi-ness operations as a nationwide microfi-nance bank, other banks are coming in.

Uncle Sam’s menwant to takeover our farmsg ‘US agrichemical

company wants controlover agriculture’

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

Chairman Agriforum Pakistan IbrahimMughal has clamed that the US agrichemi-cal Company Monsanto has planning to getits control over Pakistan’s agriculture forsetting up its monopoly. While talking toOnline on Friday Ibrahim Mughal said thatfor the free economy it was necessary thatMonsanto should not be allowed in Pak-istan. He said that Monsanto was alsoworking in neighboring India but it hasbrought no improvement in their agriculturesector then how it can increase our country’scotton production. He explain that produc-tion increase in India has not been usage ofBT cotton but other factors like increase inirrigated areas and reforms in agriculturesector have contributed to enhance produc-tion. He added that use of BT cotton vari-eties will not cause increase in production.Sources said that some high level bureau-crats in Punjab Province were meanvouringfor giving US agrichemical Company exclu-sive right of marketing BT cotton but Punjabgovernment has so far rejected this the planof US Company which were demand to paypenalty if any other variety is cultivated.

Time to move on tothe next base, sweetieSBP reminds its sweetheart PBS to rebase national income accounts and issue quarterly GDPestimates. And it also reminded mankind that contrary to popular opinion, energy shortageand lack of investment were in fact pretty perilous for the economy. Elsewhere, there was thereiteration that the economy would grow by 3.7pc in FY12, and so there’s a fair chance thatwe might eventually get to live happily ever after...

Sindh threw caution to the wind;Punjab bathes in sunshine

PUNJAB WOOS SOLAR POWER INVESTORS

PRO 21-06-2012_Layout 1 6/23/2012 6:24 AM Page 1

A PM-AND-BULL STORY

02Saturday, 23 June, 2012

Etihad Airwayswitnesses recordflight bookingsLAHORE: Etihad Airways, the nationalairline of the United Arab Emirates,achieved a new milestone of more than65,500 flight bookings made in a single day.In addition, passenger bookings for June 14to June 17 remained the highest of any fourdays previously experienced by the airline.The most popular overall destinations fortravel over the June 14 – 17 period wereBangkok, Manila, London, Riyadh and Jed-dah. Top premium travel destinations alsoincluded Paris, Sydney and Frankfurt.James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ Presidentand Chief Executive Officer, said: “EtihadAirways is experiencing exceptional de-mand for flights across our network for thismonth. We are delighted to have broken ourown records for flights bookings and willlook to raise the bar further over the comingmonths.” Etihad Airways will operate 1,262flights each week in the summer of 2012,compared to 1,106 flights in the summer of2011, an increase of 14 Per cent. The airlinecurrently operates 23 weekly flights for Pak-

istani travellers between Pakistan and AbuDhabi – daily from Karachi, Lahore and Is-lamabad and bi-weekly from Peshawar.

NBP organises

training on quality

lending in agriculture KARACHI: national Bank of Pakistan or-ganized training for over 25 General Man-agers (Credit) of the Bank from all over thecountry in a local hotel in Karachi. The objec-tive of this program was to further developtheir analytical and professional skills for ef-fectively processing of credit proposals, aug-menting credit monitoring skills and throughanalytical approach recognize early signals fornon-performing loans. They also attendedlectures for enhancing their management andleadership skills. The focus of the training wasalso to expand credit to farmers and othersmall & medium enterprises to generate moreemployment in these industries by helpingthem to be financially viable. The lectureswere delivered by professionals having re-quired expertise which was greatly appreci-ated by all participants.

Major Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVER

Siemens Pakistan 718.69 739.00 700.01 733.56 14.87 92Indus DyeingXD 394.98 405.00 403.90 404.16 9.18 250Attock PetroleumXD 450.00 461.00 450.00 458.00 8.00 191,451Linde Pakistan Ltd 115.04 120.79 117.00 120.29 5.25 11,514Gatron Ind. 89.00 93.45 92.99 93.45 4.45 407

Major Losers

Nestle Pakistan Ltd. 4085.41 4096.00 4002.00 4061.68 -23.73 12UniLever Pak 7367.43 7365.00 7350.00 7350.00 -17.43 35EFU General Ins. 78.06 81.74 74.16 74.18 -3.88 65,512Philip Morris Pak. 172.79 175.99 169.00 169.03 -3.76 3,596Biafo Industries 58.95 56.10 56.02 56.10 -2.85 560

Volume Leaders

Nestle Pak Ltd. 4085.41 4096.00 4002.00 4061.68 -23.73 12UniLever Pak 7367.43 7365.00 7350.00 7350.00 -17.43 35EFU General Ins. 78.06 81.74 74.16 74.18 -3.88 65,512Philip Morris Pak.172.79 175.99 169.00 169.03 -3.76 3,596Biafo Industries 58.95 56.10 56.02 56.10 -2.85 560

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 94.3571UK Pound 147.4140Japanese Yen 1.1745Euro 118.4558

Dollar EastBUY SELL

US Dollar 95.30 96.00Euro 118.95 119.70Great Britain Pound 147.65 148.54Japanese Yen 1.1748 1.1818Canadian Dollar 92.10 93.16Hong Kong Dollar 12.14 12.26UAE Dirham 25.89 26.02Saudi Riyal 25.38 25.48Australian Dollar 94.92 96.95

CORPORATE CORNER

Business

KARACHI

staff rEpOrt

AFTER being in the closet for thepast couple of days, bulls arrivedwith venom at the local stockmarket on the last working day of

the week. KSE 100 index closed with a totalgain of 0.96 percent. Karachi stock marketbenchmark KSE-100 share index increased130.22 points or 0.96 percent to finish theday at 13,730.82 points as compared to the13,600.60 points of Thursday. The bulls pa-raded amid higher trades on speculationsahead of announcement for new Prime Min-ister, Ahsan Mehanti Director at Arif HabibInvestments Limited, observed.

KSE-All share index gained 92.14 pointsor 0.96 percent to close the day at 9,670.12

points, KSE-30 share index added 120.03points or 1.02 percent to end the tradingsession at 11,866.54 points, while KMI-30share index was lifted up by 236.27 points or1.00 percent to terminate the day at23,765.10.03 levels. The intraday high andlow, respectively, stood at 13, 759.50 and13,536.48 points. The market capitalisationgrew modestly and increased to Rs 3.504trillion from Rs 3.470 trillion a day earlier.Mehanti said the expectations on improve-ment in Pak-US ties after positive state-ments by US Secretary of State played thecatalyst’s role in bullish sentiments at KSEdespite concerns for fall in global stocks andcommodities, security situation in the cityand prevailing political uncertainty.

Stock market traded 84.863 millionshares after opening at 57.159 million

shares. Activity took place in 353 stockswhere gainers outnumbered the losers 167 to77 while the values of 109 companies notchanged. Active list was gained topped byDGK Cement with 7.363 million shares toclose at Rs 40.16. IGI Investment Bank wason the second position with 7.058 millionshares to stop at Rs 2.25. It was followed byBank Al-Falah with 6.631 million shares,Lucky Cement with 5.020 million shares tostop at Rs 114.32 and Jahangir SiddiquiCompany with 4.432 million shares to endat Rs 13.17.

The Siemens Pakistan and Indus DyeingXD, which were the biggest price gainers ofthe day, increased by Rs 14.87 and Rs 9.18while the top losers were led by the nestlePakistan Limited and UniLever Pak Ltddown Rs 23.73 and Rs 17.43 respectively.

Raja Pervez Ashrafstimulates the bullsg Bulls gave the new PM their own guard of honour, as they went off their rockers en routeto lifting the index by 130 points. Fall in global stocks and commodities clamoured for thebears, but they were firmly trapped inside the red rag

TOKYO

aGENCIEs

The dollar slipped in Asian trade Friday followingfalls on Wall Street triggered by worries over globalgrowth and amid disappointment over a mutedstimulus move by the US Federal Reserve. Againstthe dollar, the euro firmed to $1.2563 in Tokyomorning trade from $1.2543 in new York lateThursday, while the single currency dipped to100.62 yen from 100.68 yen. The dollar -- whichenjoyed a rally in US trade Thursday as marketslooked to safe-haven currencies -- slid to 80.09 yenfrom 80.26 yen in US trade.

"The momentum of the dollar's rise willweaken following falls in share prices and a lull inthe trend of rising US government bond yields,"

Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist atBarclays Capital, said in a client note. The Fed ear-lier this week disappointed some expectations thatits policy board would launch a new quantitativeeasing programme that would inject more moneyinto the economy to boost growth. Markets werealso looking to a European Union finance minis-ters' meeting later Friday, he added.

The leaders of Germany, France, Italy andSpain are also due to meet in Rome later in the dayto thrash out details of measures aimed at tacklingEurope's ongoing debt crisis before a crucial EUsummit next week. The International MonetaryFund on Thursday said the eurozone needs to es-tablish a full banking union and that the EuropeanCentral Bank should usher in further stimulus, say-ing the eurozone crisis was at a "critical stage."

Oil up in Asia onshort-covering

SINGAPORE

aGENCIEs

Oil prices inched up in Asian trade Friday aswary traders bought up cheap crude to re-coup some of their losses after marketsplunged in overnight trade, analysts said.new York's main contract, light sweet crudefor delivery in August, gained 34 cents to$78.54 a barrel, up from $78.20 in newYork, its lowest level since the beginning ofOctober last year. Brent north Sea crudefor August delivery advanced 36 cents to$89.59 after tumbling to $89.23 in lateThursday trade, dipping below the $90 linefor the first time since December 2010.Traders were buying crude in an attempt tocover some of the losses they had sustainedovernight, said Jason Hughes, head of pre-mium client management at IG MarketsSingapore. "We're seeing a small bounce fornow. There is potential for a little bit ofshort-covering given the big moves lastnight," he told AFP. But Hughes said themarket outlook remained grim followingdisappointing numbers from China and Eu-rope. Preliminary data from banking giantHSBC on Thursday showed China's manu-facturing activity hit a seven-month low inJune. And eurozone private sector activitysank to the lowest level for three years inthe second quarter, a survey showed.

Return of the old phantoms g PTA failed to recover Rs 79.763

million of USF in 2010-11

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) in its audit reporthigh lighted irregularities, non recoveries of Rs 79.763 millionon account of Universal Source Funds (USF) by PakistanTelecommunication Authority (PTA) during FY 2010-11.These irregularities were unearthed in the special audit reporton the account of PTA for the audit year 2011-12. According tothe this report PTA did not recover an amount of 79.763 mil-lion on account of USF charges from the operators during FY2010-11 despite pointing out by the audit in the previousaudit reports. Audit report said that non recovery of receiptsreplicates ineffective financial managements of PTA and weakinternal controls devised for realization of receivables. Thisreport further revealed that Rs 9. 2 million have not been re-covered from 4B Gentle International Ltd, Rs 3,163 millionhave not been recovered from Dvcom and Rs 67, 763 millionhave not recovered by PTA from World call telecom Ltd.

Asian stocks fall SINGAPORE

aGENCIEs

Asian shares fell on Friday and the safe-haven dollar hoverednear its highest in a week-and-a-half after weak manufactur-ing data from the United States, Europe and China heightenedfears over the outlook for global growth. A long-expecteddowngrade to the credit ratings of 15 of the world's biggestbanks by ratings agency Moody's added to the gloom, whichalso weighed on commodities and currencies such as the Aus-tralian dollar that are linked to resource demand. MSCI'sbroadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.4 per-cent and Tokyo's nikkei share average lost 0.5 percent."It wasexpected that the market would undergo an adjustment afterearlier climbs, and the soft data gave it a reason," said LeeSeung-woo, an analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities in Seoul.

SECP to introduce e-IPOISLAMABAD

ONLINE

The SECP is about to introduce the concept of e-IPo inthe upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPOs) of shares andCorporate Bonds (CBs) by companies. The concept willenable the investors to make application for subscriptionof shares and CBs through internet from their computersand mobile phones without going to their Banks and waitin long ques. Purpose of implementation of the e-IPO isto facilitate simultaneously both the companies that in-tend to raise fund from the capital market through IPOsand the general public applying for subscription ofshares and CBs offered by the companies to the public.

Dollar slips in Asian trade

KARACHI: The Consul General of Japan Mr.Masaharu Sato, was the chief guest at MangoFestival, by PC, Hotel, G.M, of Hotel Mr.AzeemQureshi, also seen in picture.

KARACHI: PERA 2011 winners withChief Guest - Dr Ishrat Husain, Arif Mirza(head ACCA PK) and Ali Habib.

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