Gold touches historic highs; reaches Rs 57,000/tola

Friday, 12 August 2011

KARACHI: The gold prices jumped another record historic high of 48,875 by Rs 1843 per 10 grams in the local market on Monday compared to previous day's 47,014 per grams.

"The rise in prices of local bullion market is due to international market's volatile situation," said a bullion dealer in the main 'Sarafa bazar' here on Tuesday.

According to Karachi Sarafa Association, bullion's tola (11.664 grams) price also escalated by Rs 2,150 to Rs 57,000.

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Sugar retail price feared to rise beyond Rs74

KARACHI: Sugar retail price feared to rise beyond Rs74 per kilo, while the already hyperinflation hit people would have to swallow this sugar coated bitter pill as well.

Industry sources told that ex-factory sugar price during the last eight days rose by over Rs2.50 in Sindh and Punjab, thereby swelling the ex-factory price in Sindh to Rs71, while in Punjab to Rs72 per kilo.

Prevailing retail sugar price is around Rs74/75 per kilo and if no action taken against the profiteers, then its price feared to go beyond even Rs75.

Industry sources said that the country’s sugar stock on July 1, 2011 stood at 1.35 million tons, which constitutes of Sindh’s 0.425 million tons, Punjab’s 0.805 million tons, while Khayber Pakhtunkhaw‘s sugar stock 90,000 tons.

Sugar stock in the country was more than the demand and enough for meeting demand until December current year. Despite this the profiteers are out to fleece the consumers whimsically of which the ministry of production has itself taken notice, but to no avail. The people said that instead of rhetoric concrete actions be taken to rein in the hoarders and profiteers.

Experts said that sugar price since June 2011 till now has shot up by Rs9 per kilo and pegged at Rs74 on average and if this rate persists for another one month, then on the basis of per month consumption of three lac tons, it is feared that the profiteers would rob additional Rs2.70 billion from the wallets of hapless consumers.

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OGDC declares 25 % dividend

KARACHI: Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) has posted higher profit after tax of Rs63.527 billion for the year ending June 30, 2011 and announced a final cash dividend of Rs2.5 per share.

According to financial results of the company sent to Karachi Stock Exchange here on Friday, the pre-tax profit jumped to more than Rs90.982 billion compared to Rs88.552 billion in the same period last year.

The earning per share (EPS) also improved to Rs14.77 during the period under review, compared to Rs13.76 in the corresponding period last year.

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Stocks, overnight rates end flat; rupee weakens

KARACHI: Pakistani stocks ended flat on Friday with early gains wiped out after Engro Corp reported lower-than-expected results for the first half of 2011, dealers said

Engro Corp reported a net profit of 3.32 billion rupees ($38.45 million) in the first half of 2011, compared with 3.2 billion rupees in the same period last year. The earning per share was 8.64 rupees.

"The result is well below our expectation of 10.8 rupees per share mainly on account of lower earnings of its fertilizer business," said Bilal Qamar, an analyst at JS Global Capital
Ltd. Engro closed 2.86 percent lower at 131.89 rupees. "Engro Corp's lower-than-expected result forced its share price lower by four rupees," said Samar Iqbal, a dealer at
Topline Securities Ltd.

The Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark 100-share index closed 0.03 percent, or 2.91 points, lower at 11,262.04 points on turnover of 53.87 million shares. The KSE-index hit an
intra-day high of 11,410.74 points.

In the currency market, the rupee ended weaker at 86.39/45 to the dollar, compared with Thursday's close of 86.30/36, amid higher import payments.

Dealers said the rupee is likely to stay range-bound in the coming days because of higher remittances from overseas Pakistanis. According to official data, remittances rose 38.57 percent to $1.1 billion in the first month of 2011/12 fiscal year, compared with $791.18 million in the same period last year. In the money market, overnight rates were flat at 13.40 percent, unchanged from the previous day's close amid tight liquidity in the interbank market.

Dealers said there could be unscheduled outflows of 30 billion rupees ($347.5 million) on Monday.

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KSE ends flat at weekend

KARACHI: The local equities at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)) ended flat on Friday with early gains wiped out after Engro Corp reported lower-than-expected results for the first half of 2011,dealers said.

Engro Corp reported a net profit of 3.32 billion rupees ($38.45 million) in the first half of 2011, compared with 3.2billion rupees in the same period last year. The earning per share was 8.64 rupees.

"The result is well below our expectation of 10.8 rupees per share mainly on account of lower earnings of its fertilizer business," said Bilal Qamar, an analyst at JS Global Capital Ltd.

Engro closed 2.86 percent lower at 131.89 rupees.

"Engro Corp's lower-than-expected result forced its share price lower by four rupees," said Samar Iqbal, a dealer at Topline Securities Ltd.

The Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark 100-share index closed 0.03 percent, or 2.91 points, lower at 11,262.04 points on turnover of 53.87 million shares. The KSE-index hit an intra-day high of 11,410.74 points. 

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