Business Recorder articles from December 2010

Business Recorder archives from December 2010

NJLI MEESEQ Fund Rates.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ===================== Offer Price 535.58 Bid Price 508.79 ===================== NJLI Meeseq Fund Rates on Thursday (December 30, 2010). Copyright 2010 Business Recorder

NJLI YAQEEN GROWTH FUND RATES.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ===================== Offer Price 577.55 Bid Price 548.66 ===================== NJLI Yaqeen Growth Fund Rates on Thursday (December 30, 2010). Copyright 2010 Business Recorder

NJLI Sarmaya Growth Fund Rates.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ===================== Offer Price 275.94 Bid Price 262.18 ===================== New Jubilee Life Insurance Sarmaya Growth Fund Rates on Thursday (December 30, 2010). Copyright 2010 Business Recorder

NJLI Managed Growth Fund Rates.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ===================== Offer Price 553.37 Bid Price 525.69 ===================== New Jubilee Life Insurance Managed Growth Fund Rates on Thursday (December 30, 2010). Copyright 2010 Business Recorder

Pakistan Government International Bonds.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ====================================================================== Pakistan Government International Bonds ====================================================================== Bid Offer Bid Offer Mid...

London Interbank Offered Rates.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ====================================================== Rates at 11:00 London time Thursday (Dec 30, 2010) ====================================================== USD GBP CAD EUR...

Open market rates of foreign currencies.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ========================================================================= CURRENCY BUYING SELLING CURRENCY BUYING SELLING ========================================================================= US$ O/M 85.70 85.80...

Currency values in terms of Special Drawing Rights.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ====================================================================================== December 30, 2010 ====================================================================================== Currency units per SDR...

Spot dollar rates.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ======================================= Ex Interbank Rate PKR against USD ======================================= BID OFFER CLOSE ======================================= Ready 85.7100 85.7300 85.7200 1 week...

Banks' rates for currency notes (buying and selling).
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT =================================== Selling Buying =================================== US DOLLAR 86.81 84.71 SAUDI RIYAL 23.15 22.58 UK POUND STG 134.61 131.34 JAPANESE YEN 1.0661 1.0398 EURO 114.86...

Money Market Report.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT Money market report by Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari & Co on Thursday (December 30, 2010). DAILY MONEY MARKET COMMENTS: Money market initiated at the level of 12.75% - 13.25%. In Repo, major deals were done in the...

Interest rates on new foreign currency deposits.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ================================================= INTEREST RATES ON NEW FOREIGN CURRENCY DEPOSITS US DOLLAR ================================================= PERIOD FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER 2010 %...

Bill buying rates per unit of currency.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ======================================================================== BILL BUYING RATES PER UNIT OF CURRENCY ======================================================================== Bill 30 Days 60 Days 90 Days...

LIBOR calculating interest on US dollar.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ========================================= BONDS LIBOR VALUE ========================================= 6 MONTHS US DOLLAR 0.4572 30-12-2010 ========================================= London Interbank Offer Rates...

Interest rates on old and incremental FCY deposits.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ================== Rates % pa ================== USD 0.1000 GBP 0.1000 JPY 0.0000 ================== Interest rates on old and incremental FCY deposits on Thursday (December 30, 2010). Copyright 2010...

Conversion for foreign currency deposits.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT =============================================== US DOLLAR POUND STERLING EURO JAPANESE YEN =============================================== 85.8774 132.1138 112.8267...

Currency notes: exchange rates.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ============================================= AUTHORISED DEALERS' RATES FOR CURRENCY NOTES ============================================= COUNTRY SELLING BUYING ============================================= USA...

Exchange rates: buying and selling.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ========================================= Countries Selling Buying Buying TT&OD TT Clean OD/T.CHQ ========================================= USA 85.95 85.75 85.56 UK 133.28 132.97 132.66 EURO 113.72 113.46...

State Bank of Pakistan conversion rates.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ========================== US Dollar 85.8774 Pound Sterling 132.1138 Euro 112.8257 Japanese Yen 1.0463 ========================== Rates applicable for conversion into rupees of Foreign Currency Deposits,...

Barclays bid rates and maximum rates for payment of interest.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT ======================================================== INTEREST PAYABLE ON FE DEPOSITS ======================================================== BBA BID MAXIMUM RATES RATES FOR PAYMENT OF INTEREST...

How Pakistani banks are aggravating - income inequalities.
December 31, 2010... Byline: ASHRAF JANJUA It is well known that income distribution in Pakistan is highly skewed. Nearly 40 percent of the people (about 70 million) are living below the poverty line. While healthy developments, such as a dramatic increase in...

FIRST WOMEN BANK LTD - Giving women the power to succeed.
December 31, 2010... Byline: SHAFQAT SULTANA First Women Bank Ltd., a scheduled commercial bank and DFI designed, managed and run by women, for women, was set up in 1989 by the Islamic world's first woman Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto (Shaheed) who...

Going Branchless: Paving way for financial inclusion.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RAIS MAHANED AHMED The concept of 'financial inclusion' is now widely acknowledged by many economists as an imperative growth strategy in developing economies. It may be defined as a durable solution, aimed at creating expansive...

The Bank of Khyber - RAAST Islamic Banking.
December 31, 2010... Byline: BILAL MUSTAFA Bilal Mustafa is the Managing Director of The Bank of Khyber with over 38 years banking experience. He took over the charge on March 05, 2008. He started his banking career with Habib Bank and subsequently joined Allied...

Sharia-compliant banking?
December 31, 2010... Byline: DR. KHALID ZAHEER The present-day Islamic Banking is, in my opinion, fifty percent Islamic if viewed from a legal point of view. It is even less from the standpoint of the true spirit of Islamic teachings. As someone whose doctoral...

The evolution of banking valuation in Pakistan.
December 31, 2010... Byline: KHALID IQBAL SIDDIQUI In the early part of the decade, there was little interest in banking stocks at the Karachi Stock Exchange; investors mostly focused on the more heavyweight scrips such as PTCL, HUBCO, PSO, FFC and the likes....

SMEs in Pakistan: It's a catch-22.
December 31, 2010... Byline: SOHAIB JAMALI In the long list of dichotomies, anomalies and mismatches that exist in almost all the spheres of social and economic affairs of the country, the SME mismatch is surely amongst the top few. The Small and Medium...

State of anti-money laundering laws in Pakistan.
December 31, 2010... Byline: Mona Khan Post 9/11 counter-terrorism efforts, and an increasing global desire to eliminate financing opportunities for sponsoring acts of terrorism, has made it crucial for countries across the globe through a centralized database,...

Islamic banking in search of a direction.
December 31, 2010... Byline: ZUHAIR ABBASI "I shall watch with keenness the work of your organisation...compatible with Islamic ideas of social and economic life. We must work...and present to the world an economic system based on true Islamic concept of equality...

Faster foreclosure system must to foster banking - An interview with Atif R. Bokhari, President & CEO, United Bank Limited.(Company overview)
December 31, 2010... Byline: ALI KHIZAR & SOHAIB JAMALI This interview takes the reader through a conversation with Atif Bokhari, President and CEO of UBL Pakistan. The CEO speaks about the much-pondered issue of financing of long-term projects, and that of...

Good things come in small packages.
December 31, 2010... Byline: MANAL IQBAL The financial industry has experienced tremendous growth over the past few decades. On one hand, complex financial products are to be blamed for the recent global economic disorder; but on the other, simple financial...

Financial inclusion holds the key - An interview with Sultan Ali Allana, Chairman, HBL.(Interview)(Company overview)
December 31, 2010... Byline: ALI KHIZAR & SIJAL FAWAD For Allana, financial inclusion is the panacea for economic growth in Pakistan. Stressing on the subject, Allana points out how financial inclusion is imperative for increasing the savings rate. In this...

Bank treasury's role in Pakistan.
December 31, 2010... Byline: ASAD RIZVI Banks' treasury departments have a wide variety of functions. The primary role of any treasury function is to manage bank's assets and liabilities, and existent risk arising from them. The responsibility of treasury...

Bonding the bond market.
December 31, 2010... Byline: HAIDER NAWAB It's difficult to find an issue that the community of financiers agree upon. But one thing just about every top level decision maker on the market agrees is that the role of commercial banks is not to finance long term...

Consumer banking - the boom and the bane.
December 31, 2010... Byline: SIJAL FAWAD The exalted grandeur of consumer banking in Pakistan was very short-lived; the anti-climax hit the sector in 2008 amid falling economic growth and rising interest rates, and there was no coming back for consumer lending....

Banks need to shift gears.
December 31, 2010... Byline: ALI KHIZAR ASLAM In the race of the financial sector growth and evolution, the discontinuity and unpredictability of government policies has kept Pakistan far behind other developing and emerging economies. Unlike others, the absence...

Concentrating on trade finance - An interview with Husain Lawai, President & CEO, Summit Bank.
December 31, 2010... Byline: HAIDER NAWAB Juggling with the varied portfolio of Arif Habib Bank, Atlas Bank and My Bank, Lawai is busy reorganising and restructuring the entity he runs. Sharing his thoughts with BR Research, Lawai discusses his planned business...

Agent network is the key to branchless banking - An interview with Syed Irfan Ali, Director Banking Policy and Regulations Department, State Bank of Pakistan.
December 31, 2010... Byline: MANAL IQBAL In this interview Irfan talks about the future of branchless and m-banking industry in Pakistan and the lessons to be drawn from experiences in other countries. He also shares his views on the profitability of this growing...

Consumer boom was a disservice to society - An interview with Sirajuddin Aziz, CEO, Bank Alfalah Limited.(Interview)
December 31, 2010... Byline: SOHAIB JAMALI In his conversation with BR Research, Aziz laments the consumer-led economic boom of the yesteryears and stresses on the need to make sacrifices to ensure long term growth in the country. Sharing his growth strategies...

Small banks need to do a SWOT analysis - An interview with Arif Usmani, Managing Director & Citi Country Officer, Citibank N.A.(Interview)
December 31, 2010... Byline: ALI KHIZAR & HAIDER NAWAB In one of the most candid interviews, Usmani asserts why the consumer banking boom in Pakistan 'was a 'mistake' and how his bank has been moving away from the consumer business to focus more on its...

Small banks must bet on riskier assets - An interview with Mohsin Nathani, Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Bank.
December 31, 2010... Byline: SOHAIB JAMALI In this interview, focused on the overall banking climate in the country, Nathani speaks to BR Research about the challenges lying ahead, particularly for small banks. The high spread environment and high cost of funds,...

East to be growth centre for HSBC - An interview with Lloyd Maddock, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Pakistan.(Interview)
December 31, 2010... Lloyd Maddock has recently taken the helm of HSBC's operations in Pakistan. He believes demand for credit is expected to revive in the upcoming year and that the global focus of HSBC is on emerging markets. Maddock shared with BR Research...

Faysal eyeing further expansion - An interview with Naved A. Khan, President & CEO, Faysal Bank Limited.
December 31, 2010... Byline: HAIDER NAWAB Naved A. Khan has his hands full; and from the look of things, he is set to have a busy schedule in the coming years. Talking to BR Research, Khan shares his plans to continue shopping for medium and small banks, while...

Home-ownership must for better democracy - An interview with Syed Ali Raza, President & Chairman, National Bank of Pakistan.
December 31, 2010... Byline: HAIDER NAWAB In this interview, Ali Raza highlights the need to develop bond markets while lamenting the lost years of financial innovation in Pakistan. Talking about the financing structure in Pakistan, Raza stresses on...

Betting on service - An interview with Shaukat Tarin, Director, Silkbank Limited.
December 31, 2010... Byline: ALI KHIZAR & HAIDER NAWAB In his conversation with BR Research Tarin touches his plans to expand Silkbank, the returns he eyes and how he intends to leverage on his strengths in the consumer assets segment. Tarin also shares his...

Kardar banking on government reforms.(Interview)
December 31, 2010... An interview with Shahid Hafiz Kardar, Governor, State Bank of Pakistan Ali Khizar & Haider Nawab. In his first detailed interview to a Pakistani publication, after becoming the governor, Kardar talks candidly about how the government's...

From editor's desk.
December 31, 2010... The publication of Banking Review in your hand has taken place in less than one month after the death of pioneer of economic and financial journalism in Pakistan M. A. Zuberi. This occasion, therefore, affords us an opportunity to take a leaf...

Aaj TV - Friday's schedule.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT 06:00 News Bulletin 06:25 Headline News 06:30 30 Tareekh 06:55 Headline News 07:00 Islamabad Tonight 07:25 Headline News 07:30 Islamabad Tonight 07:55 News Bulletin 08:25 Headline News 08:30 Aaj Market Morning (Live)...

Sukkur IBA: Determined to be world-class centre of excellence.
December 31, 2010... Access to quality education in rural Sindh is quite scanty and far-fetched. Quality education in Urban Sindh is expensive and far away. Many parents cannot afford to send their children to Karachi or Lahore. In fact, more than 80% of the parents...

NED University of Engineering and Technology: towards new milestones in academic excellence.
December 31, 2010... Byline: DR NOMAN AHMED The contemporary world is greatly influenced by reputation of success and performance that is historically established. If one approaches from the present-day idiom in language, NED has become a brand name in our...

Seed products show modest change on grain market.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT Seeds products fluctuated modestly on the wholesales grain and seed market on Thursday, dealers said. On the grams side rapeseeds Nawabshah low type rose by Rs 50 to Rs 2325 and good type was up by Rs 40 to Rs 2340....

Activity at Karachi and Qasim ports.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT The Karachi Port handled 153,367 tonnes of cargo including 116,038 tonnes of import cargo, 37,329 tonnes of export cargo, 4,009 loaded and empty containers during last 24 hours ended at 0700 hours on Thursday. The...

Oil cake market rates.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT Contracts were mixed on the forward cottonseed oilcake market on Thursday in process of trading, dealers said. The January vaida that had closed with 50 paisa fall at Rs 1250.00 opened with no change at the same rate....

Cotton prices perk up again.
December 31, 2010... Byline: DR ZAFAR HASSAN While the New York cotton futures (ICE) prices are mostly dilly-dallying in search of a positive direction, domestic lint prices have moved up by about Rs 200 per maund (37.32 Kgs) over the past couple of days. New...

Capital police arrest car thief.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT Islamabad Police have arrested a car lifter red-handed, while four other outlaws including a woman, were nabbed for their alleged involvement in drug peddling, possessing illegal weapons. One car, 1100 gram hashish,...

HDF to construct 13 model villages in flood-affected areas.
December 31, 2010... Byline: TAHIR AMIN Human Development Foundation (HDF) will construct 13 model villages in flood affected areas to provide better accommodation to 49,641 flood victims of 6,471 families across the country. In the model villages, inhabitants...

Call to keep budget deficit low by maintaining financial management.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT The eminent economist, Dr Ashfaque Hassan Khan, Thursday, while showing grave concern over increasing fiscal deficit, said that government should keep the budget deficit low by maintaining financial management in the...

ERRA meeting approves projects for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muzaffarabad.
December 31, 2010... The 16th board meeting of Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), presided over by its chairman Hamid Yar Hiraj, was held here on Thursday and was attended by Chief Secretary Azad Jammu and Kashmir, members of Planning...

Gas loadshedding: Industrial growth comes to a complete halt.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT President Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), Ali Raza Saeed Shah has said due to gas loadshedding not only industry's growth has come to a complete halt but it has also multiplied the miseries of...

UNICEF sponsored U-14 football tournament ends.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT UNICEF sponsored a weeklong under-14 girls and boys football tournament concluded at Cantonment Board Ground here on Wednesday. In final fixture Lady Anderson Girls school team thrashed Talim-ul-Amal Centre Alla Abad...

South Korea labels North 'enemy'.
December 31, 2010... North Korea has raised the number of its special forces troops, who are trained to infiltrate South Korea, by 20,000 to 200,000 in the past two years as it increasingly focuses on unconventional warfare, South Korea said Thursday. It warned in a...

PIA, Turkish Airlines ink MoU.
December 31, 2010... A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Turkish Airlines to bolster commercial co-operation and explore avenues to bring the people of the two countries closer. The agreement was...

Minister for releasing water downstream Kotri Barrage.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT The Sindh Minister for Power, Ms Shazia Marri, has said that due to scarcity of fresh water and intrusion of sea water, the areas downstream Kotri Barrage were ecologically in worst condition and appealed to all...

One gunned down in Naseerabad.
December 31, 2010... A man was gunned down while his wife sustained serious injuries over old enmity in district Jaffarabad on Thursday. According to the local police, unknown armed men barged into a house and opened fire at Khan Bahdur and his wife near Goht Yat...

Oil & gas sector outperforms KSE index by 19 percent.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT The heavy weight oil and gas sector posted a handsome return of 45 percent (inclusive of dividend) during the outgoing year of 2010, analysts said. Thanks to the rising foreign interest and volume led earnings growth,...

RAC discusses broadening of tax base.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT A meeting of Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) consists of Tax Officers and members of leading Business Organisation and Tax Bar Associations was held at Regional Tax Office, Hyderabad. The meeting discussed the issues...

Evening Programme: Sindh University IBA announces two-year MBA Executive, four-year BBA.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT In light of instructions of the President of Pakistan to generate resources to open up additional evening classes and help the Citizens of Hyderabad City, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) University of...

CJP praises judges of SHC, district judiciary.
December 31, 2010... Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has expressed his satisfaction over the performance of the judges of Sindh High Court and district judiciary. "During the last one year the judges of High Court and district...

Annual function of Bazm-e-Kiran in DHA: rapidly spreading trend of waywardness in youth highlighted.
December 31, 2010... The annual function of Bazm-e-Kiran, an organisation engaged in fighting-waywardness in the society, was held at Defence Central Library. The speakers highlighted the rapidly spreading trend of waywardness in youth eroding the vitals of society...

All set to meet kinnow export target.
December 31, 2010... Byline: IQBAL MIRZA Kinnow exports are in full swing and the industry is well-poised to meet the Kinnow export target of 300,000 metric tons worth 85 million dollars during the current 2010-11 export season. A spokesman of Pakistan...

Show of cause notices issued to judicial officers.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT The Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry has issued show cause notices to two judicial officers (JO) for influencing him (CJ) in matter of their promotion and posting. Issuing notices to...

Tussle between DG I&I FBR and Director of Karachi office intensifies.
December 31, 2010... Byline: MUHAMMAD ALI Infighting between Director General, Intelligence and Investigation (I&I)FBR and the Director of Karachi office has further intensified as Muhammad Zahid Khokar, Director I&I-FBR, Karachi on Thursday went on...

Partly Facetious: No political party has a clean past.
December 31, 2010... Byline: ANJUM IBRAHIM "So what's up?" "The PML (N) said that Altaf Hussain is not in his senses and mentioned his wife and..." "And the MQM was angered, visibly angered and mentioned the H word." "I am sorry? What's the H word?" ...

APC by Schneider Electric launches 'EcoBreeze'.
December 31, 2010... APC by Schneider Electric, a global leader in integrated critical power and cooling services, today announced the launch of EcoBreeze(tm), a modular indirect evaporative and air-to-air heat exchanger cooling solution for tackling the energy...

Dream and reality.
December 31, 2010... Byline: M M RAB (KARACHI) Dream is effortless but its conversion into reality always remains illusive. It will, therefore, be prudent for the former ambassador, Tariq Fatmi to stop sycophancy of the erring Nawaz in the hope of becoming the...

Benazir Bhutto's assassination.
December 31, 2010... Byline: M S HASAN (KARACHI) Pir Saheb Pagara's statement on December 25 about catching Benazir's killers is right when he says that "No one can touch Benazir's Killers." The arrest of 'top Pindi cops', allegedly involved in the assassination...

Radioactive ore in Kurram Agency.
December 31, 2010... Byline: DR GHAYUR AYUB I wrote on the religion-political situation in Kurram Agency in my previous articles titled "Is Islamabad losing Parachinar to Kabul?" and "Parachinar is burning". Today, I am writing on another aspect of this troubled...

Provinces and agricultural income tax.
December 31, 2010... Byline: HUZAIMA BUKHARI AND DR IKRAMUL HAQ The issue of distribution of taxation powers between the federation and federating units in Pakistan has assumed renewed significance in the wake of 18th Constitutional Amendment and announcement of...

Inflation, RGST and the revised SBP Act 2010: Explaining simple economics.
December 31, 2010... Byline: DR ALI CHOUDHARY AND FAROOQ PASHA Two important sources of inflation in Pakistan have come to the forefront: government's excessive reliance on the SBP and inflationary expectations. With latter leading to persistence in inflation at...

Stop! Look what you're doing.
December 31, 2010... The string of profanities that came from the lips of PML (N) and MQM leaders against each other's top leadership as they spoke to reporters at the main gate of the Parliament House on Wednesday is too obscene to be printed on this page. Had this...

Bail-out package for the railways.
December 31, 2010... The Cabinet has approved a bail-out package for Pakistan Railways (PR) amounting to 11.5 billion rupees and enhanced its overdraft facility from the State Bank of Pakistan by 10 billion rupees. Analysts are agreed that railway remains the...

'Country being run by printing notes worth billions of rupees'.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Chief, Nawaz Sharif has said the country is being run by printing billions of currency notes every month. Addressing the function of Foundation Day of the PML-N at the Expo Centre, Nawaz...

Researchers, stakeholders urged to formulate horticulture policy.(Conference notes)
December 31, 2010... Byline: KHALID ABBAS SAIF Pakistan is blessed with diversified agro-ecological conditions suitable to grow more than 30 fruits as there was a tremendous potential of increasing per acre production of these crops as well as introducing new...

Punjab University to conduct rehearsal of 119th convocation today.
December 31, 2010... Byline: RECORDER REPORT Vice-Chancellor, Punjab University, Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dr Jamil Anwar Chaudhry Registrar, Professor Dr Muhammad Akhtar, Controller Examinations, Dr Zahid Karim Khan, all faculty...