Market remains flat despite recovery in int'l stocks
LAHORE - The local equity markets continued to remain flat and dull, as the floor price mechanism, which was scheduled to be removed on August 27, stayed in place. Moreover, no date was announced at the much awaited weekend visit of Finance Advisor to the Stock Exchange to remove this ‘floor’.
THE KSE-100 Index remained stagnant at 9,182.88 points. Average daily volumes in the ready markets were 0.23 million shares. At the off-market counter average volume (Mon - Thurs) was 7.95 million shares a day, as no time frame has been given regarding the resumption of normal trading.
Experts were of opinion that the KSE Board claimed that adequate stabilization measures were not in place as funding commitments for the support fund had not been received while sufficient detail on the put option remained elusive.
The road to victory started in Sri Lanka
Maldivian President-elect Mohamed Nasheed
A man jailed 13 times for defying the outgoing President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom through his rousing speeches and fiery writing, Mohamed Nasheed, lovingly referred by the Maldivian people as Anni has finally managed to usher in the "Other Maldives" he promised during his presidential election campaign.
As Asia's longest serving President was made to concede defeat after three decades in power, his replacement is a one-time Amnesty International declared Prisoner of Conscience.
As the new president-elect prepares to take the reins of a country that is ready to turn a new leaf, Maldives itself celebrates the dawn of a new era, a multi-party democracy and the opportunity to enhance the fundamental freedoms.
As the 41-year-old president-elect Mohamed Nasheed busily plans his 12 member cabinet and all else that comes with the trappings of presidency, he engaged in a brief telephone conversation to share his vision for the Maldives with The Sunday Leader in which he said he was delighted to share the change and success with Sri Lanka where his political party was initially founded and registered.
Silver Smith India Limited, BSE Listed Multidimensional Jewellery Solution
Company, Announces Financial Results For Q2 Of 2008-2009
November 02, 2008 - Silver Smith India Limited (SSIL), Bombay stock exchange listed multidimensional jewellery solution company, announces financial results for Q2 of 2008-2009
Sales up by 255% at 118.00 lakhs; PAT up by 667% at 26.76 lakh
Silver Smith India Ltd., listed on Bombay Stock Exchange, is a multidimensional jewellery solution company. It is the first of its kind to service the requirements of ever growing jewellery industry and spans across three segments of the silver jewellery business – education, design outsourcing & retail.
The sales for Q2 in 2008-2009 were Rs. 118.00 lakh up from Rs.33.22 lakh in Q2 2007-2008 marking an increase of 255% over last year.
Profit after tax was up to Rs. 18.65 lakh in the same quarter, up from Rs. 2.43 Lakh in the same quarter last year, marking an increase of 667.48% over last year.
EPS of the company also went up to Rs.0.45 for Q2, 2008-09 up from Rs.0.05 in Q2, 2007-08.
Sebi extends stock lending, borrowing tenure to 30 days
Mumbai November 2, 2008,
Capital markets regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, has increased the tenure for lending and borrowing of stocks from seven days to 30.
The move comes at a time of heavy short selling in the Indian markets, led by entities who borrow stocks from foreign institutional investors, or FIIs. Stocks worth over $1 billion have been shorted in the Indian markets through this route so far.
Under the stock lending and borrowing scheme (SLBS), which started in April this year, securities could so far be borrowed only for seven days, after which the borrower had to return securities of the same type and class.
If you borrowed shares of company A, the approved intermediaries provided an automated screen-based platform, where the borrowing and lending transactions took place by order-matching on price and time priority. The first-leg settlement takes place on the first day after the transaction, called T+1 in trade parlance, and the reverse-leg settlement on the T+8 day.
Under the scheme, a person who owns securities can lend them through an approved intermediary, or AI, which also acts as the central counterparty.
Sebi has authorised the clearing houses of both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange to act as AIs.
We have good news
Mumbai, November 01, 2008
A sectoral analysis shows that the effect of the financial meltdown may not be as bad as it is being made out to be.
While in the quarter ended September 30, sales increased across most sectors, profit margins dipped. However, analysts say the situation is better than most expected.
For instance, several companies in sectors like consumer goods, industrials and basic materials reported higher-than-expected growth in sales, an earnings analysis of 571 companies by news and data services agency Bloomberg showed.
Firms that reported better-than-expected sales growth outnumbered the others by 2.5 times.
“Banks, utilities, pharmaceuticals and metals did better than expected, while automobiles, capital goods, media, hotels and consumer businesses disappointed,” said Aditya Narain, an analyst at Citigroup, in an India strategy report.
Markets end week green, liquidity steps brighten outlook (Lead - Weekly Roundup)
Mumbai, Nov 1 - With Indian equities markets worshipping Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, during Diwali this week, some wealth seems to have come back to the battered markets with a key share index ending the week with a gain of 12.5 percent after losing nearly 35 percent in the first three weeks of Oct.The measures taken Saturday by India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will also help to boost liquidity and may brighten investor sentiments when markets reopen next week, analysts said.
Analysts, however, cautioned that while liquidity is much needed, the pace and intensity of the measures being introduced by the RBI may lead to a similar situation as in the US where too much liberalization of the financial markets brought on the present global turbulence.
The benchmark 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended the week Friday at 9,788.06, up 1,086.99 points or 12.5 percent from its close Friday previous week at 8,701.07.
Oil drops 3 percent, set for record monthly slide
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil fell nearly $2 on Friday as weak demand and the global economic crisis put crude on track for the biggest monthly drop ever.
U.S. crude fell $1.82, or almost 3 percent, to $64.14 a barrel by 12:00 p.m. EDT. It is down by around 35 percent for October, its steepest monthly decline to date as demand in the United States and other big consumer nations slows.
London Brent crude traded down $1.98 to $61.73.
The U.S. Commerce Department reported that American consumers cut spending for the first time in two years in September, as confidence drained.
This coincided with data released on Thursday which showed that U.S. gross domestic product contracted at an annual rate of 0.3 percent for the third quarter.
It was the sharpest economic decline in seven years for the United States, the world's largest oil consumer, provoking further falls across commodities and global stock markets, also poised for their worst month yet.
A stronger U.S. dollar, which makes dollar-denominated assets less attractive to buyers, further pressured commodities.
"It could even take a large part of 2009 before we see an increase in demand again," said Peter Beutel, president of trading consultants Cameron Hanover in Stamford, Connecticut.
"In the meantime, oil prices are likely to continue to react to equities moves, the U.S. dollar's relationship to the euro, OPEC production cuts and the weather," he added.
In three months oil has wiped out gains that took more than a year to build, down more than half since it struck a record high of $147.27 in July.
Demand has shrunk amid economic weakness across the world, with a slump in global stock markets outweighing any sign of tighter supplies from OPEC.
Following a decision last week by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), evidence has begun to emerge the group means what it said.
Kuwait on Friday informed customers it was cutting crude supplies by 5 percent in November.
Earlier in the week, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates told customers they would receive less oil, but top exporter Saudi Arabia has yet to inform customers of any fresh curbs.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Thursday OPEC should cut oil output by another 1 million bpd -- possibly before its next scheduled meeting in December -- and should set a minimum price target of $70 or $80 a barrel.
Wall Street crisis burns Bhutan’s steel industries
The intensification of global credit crunch and ensuing economic slowdown has forced world steel price to plummet and caused some exporting steel industries in Bhutan to “temporarily” close down, with the rest to face a similar fate soon, says the Association of Bhutanese Industries. They have approached the government for rescue.
The Nu 1.3 billion steel factories - Druk Iron and Steel, Lhaki Steel and Rolling Mills, Bhutan Concast, KK Steels Pvt. Ltd. and Bhutan Rolling Mills – are based in Phuentsholing.
“The situation’s worsening by the day,” said Lhaki Steel and Rolling Mills CEO Tashi Wangdi.
Steel plants in Bhutan manufacture TMT bars, billets, ingots and structural steel and sold in India.
The global financial crisis has, however, hit Indian markets hard. Shares of some of India’s largest lenders like ICICI have dropped sharply following reports that its investments are over-exposed in crisis-hit US and UK. FDIs in India are dwindling. These have caused erosion of investor wealth and confidence in the market. As a result credit is shrinking. Some of its industries are hurting badly: steel sales, for instance, are at their lowest level as would-be buyers in construction and other development projects are unable to get credit. Most steel factories in India have thus temporarily shut down too.
The Indian steel industry until August this year was a sunshine industry, fuelled by a rapid rise in infrastructure spending and middle class family and demand for washing machines, fridges, TV sets and other consumer items using steel as a major ingredient. The demand, and the price, was also driven up by the boom in China.
CFS down Rs700 mn at KSE
KARACHI: The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), this week saw Rs70 million decline in CFS financing.
A statistics released by the KSE shows that in the wake of this reduction, the total financing in the CFS stood at Rs11.570 billion.
While the interest rate on the CFS financing soared by 10.37 percent to 55.91.
Five companies stood out in CFS financing namely, Jehangir Siddiqui& Company, OGDC, National Bank, Arif Habib Securities and Pakistan Oilfields.
S'poreans must work hard
Country cannot afford to be weak, says PM at youth dialogue
BHUTAN has a yardstick for measuring success which some youth here yearn to have in place of Singapore's relentless pursuit of economic growth.
It was a longing that struck a chord in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday, but he was quick to explain why Bhutan's Gross National Happiness index was not suitable for Singapore.
'We are one small island in the middle of a very turbulent South-east Asia.
You have to watch your GDP (gross domestic product), because if you are poor, you will be weak; if you are weak, something will happen to you,' he said.
ECONOMY-MAURITIUS: Textile Manufacturing Goes Green and Clean
PORT LOUIS, Nov 1 (IPS) - ‘‘The cost of production is high in Mauritius as we are far away from our main markets. Our island is so small that at times our clients do forget us. We no longer benefit from any trade preferences. We don’t have any natural resources but we have plenty of sunshine and wind and we have decided to use these resources.’’
These are the thoughts that Kendall Tang, director of Richfield Tang Knits Ltd, a factory at La Tour Koenig south of the capital, shared with European buyers recently.
They visited his factory before attending the International Textile Manufacturers Federation’s (ITMF) conference on the theme of a greener and a more sustainable textile industry last month.
Richfield Tang Knits Ltd, or RT Knits as it is known, has devised a new strategy based on green production to reduce its costs of production and to improve its work environment. The company is betting on the availability of the sunshine and the stable direction of the wind 10 out of 12 months yearly.
‘‘Our factory is geared towards the principle of sustainable development and environmental concerns. We want the factory to become energy-efficient by using more renewable energy sources, recycling and using recycled materials, using less water and achieving the lowest carbon emission per garment manufactured,’’ project manager Patrick Koo told IPS.
Sensex slides below 8,000, recovers
The Sensex recovered most of its losses after dropping below the 7,700 level
Mumbai: India’s bellwether stock index, the Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) Sensex, plunged below 7,700 in mid-day trades on Monday, a level last seen in August 2005, but regained 800 points to close at 8,509.56—a 2.2% loss—after domestic institutions went bargain hunting. According to provisional data from BSE, local institutions bought stocks worth Rs916.18 crore on Monday even as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Rs1,027.30 crore worth of stocks in the cash market.
The large-scale FII pull-out from equities continued to put pressure on the local currency, pushing the rupee down to a new lifetime low of 50.29 to a dollar in intra-day trade, but aggressive dollar selling by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stopped it yet again from closing above the 50-mark. The rupee closed at 49.87/88, stronger than its previous close of 49.95/97 a dollar after an estimated $1.5 billion (Rs7,515 crore) sale by RBI. So far this year, the rupee has slid more than 21% against the dollar.
Nifty futures premium widens, volumes drops 32%
MUMBAI: After being hammered continuously for the past few weekends, Indian stocks snapped the trend to close higher on Friday. Shrugging off the fall in global markets, Indian equities surged as bears covered shorts mainly in metal, oil & gas and banking stocks. However, given the mixed trend overseas, analysts' suspect the rally may not sustain.
National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty closed the day 6.99 per cent higher at 2885.60. Intraday, it moved in the broad band of 225 points. Nifty November futures provisionally ended at a premium of 30 points to spot. The contract price climbed 7.03 per cent and added 29.58 lakh shares in open interest. The cost of carry was at 4.53 per cent.
The options data does not give any clear direction as bulls are buying calls and bears puts. Call writing was seen at Nifty strike 2900 while call buying was observed from 3000 to 3600 levels. On the other hand, put buying was witnessed from strikes 2900 to 2300.
