A stockbroker talks on phones as he monitors share prices during a trading session at the Karachi Stock Exchange. — Photo by AFP

KARACHI: Stocks ended on yet another record closing on Wednesday and volume rose to a 10-month high, led by foreigners accumulating shares of the energy and telecom sector on hopes of healthy profits due to be announced in the coming days, dealers said.

The KSE 100-share index ended 0.70 per cent, or 120.45 points, higher at a record closing of 17,408.52 points. It made a fresh all-time high at 17,439.07 points and an intra day low at 17.288.07 points.

Turnover rose to 335.62 million shares, compared with 251.75 million shares traded on Monday and trading value increased by 2.6 billion to Rs7.46 billion from Rs4.86bn in the previous trading session.

Market capitalisation stood at Rs4.35 trillion from Monday’s Rs4.33 trillion.

“The local equity market registered yet another record session led by E&P (Exploration and Production) stocks that poured in sufficient gains for the benchmark to stand strong at historic high,” said Hasnain Asghar Ali from Escorts Capital Ltd.

The heaviest weight company on the exchange, Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd gained 80 paisa to Rs194.54 and Pakistan Oilfields ended Rs11.80 higher at Rs466.69.

Samar Iqbal, a dealer from Topline Securities said that the telecom sector remained in the limelight as the shares of World Call, Wateen Telecom and Telecard totaled 24 per cent of the total volume. All five of the telecom companies listed on the KSE-index were the top five volume leaders on Wednesday.

However, dealers said investors might be cautious in the days ahead as they wait for the monetary policy announcement, which is due on Feb 8. Most analysts expect the State Bank to keep the policy rate unchanged at 9.5 per cent for the subsequent two months.

Foreigners turned into net buyers as they bought shares worth a net $3.92 million on Wednesday, compared with a net selling of $201,407 on Monday, bringing the total net selling for the month at $291,827.10. The total for January stood at net buying of $15.42m. Mutual Funds were the biggest sellers with equity worth $2.73 million.

The biggest gainer was UniLever Pakistan which ended Rs75 higher at Rs10,075, followed by Rafhan Maize Prod which closed Rs50 higher at Rs3,600. Nestle Pakistan Ltd witnessed the biggest loss as it shed Rs210.50 to Rs4,701, followed by Indus Dyeing, which ended Rs29.87 lower at Rs567.63.

The KSE-30 index ended 0.77pc, or 109.15 points, higher at 14,232.38.

Out of the 356 companies traded, the value of 202 increased, 130 decreased while 24 remained unchanged.

The telecom sector along with second and third tier companies dominated the 10 most active traded stocks: WorldCall Telecom topped the list as it gained 63 paisa to Rs3.49 on turnover of 53.42 million shares, TRG Pakistan Ltd rose Re1 to Rs8.28 on 33.86m shares and Wateen Telecom Ltd ended 35 paisa higher at Rs3.34 on 24.51m shares.

Pakistan Telecommunication Co Ltd increased by 92 paisa to close at Rs20.31 on 22.91m shares, Telecard Ltd rose 13 paisa to Rs4.56 on 20.27m shares and Lotte PakPTA gained 10 paisa to Rs7.82 on 18.38m shares.

KESC Corp ended 31 paisa higher at Rs6.37 on 12.48m shares, Engro Corp closed up Rs1.11 at Rs95.87 on 10.20m shares and Pace (Pak) Ltd marginally gained one paisa to Rs3.49 on 9.53m shares.

Jahangir Siddiqui Co rose 27 paisa to close at Rs16.66 on volume of 9.1m shares.

(L-R) William Shatner, Kate Mulgrew, Avery Brooks and Scott Bakula, who played Star Trek captains, pose for photographers at the “Destination Star Trek London” event in London.—Reuters file photo

LONDON: Star Trek fans made history on Saturday by breaking the record for the largest gathering of people dressed as characters from the TV series at the “Destination Star Trek London” convention.

An estimated 1,083 costume-clad “trekkies” assembled at the event at London’s ExCel centre, narrowly beating the previous record of 1,040 characters, which was set at the bigger, annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in August.

The achievement will be officially verified by Guinness World Records within a few days, but organisers were confident they had topped the Las Vegas record.

The majority of record-breakers dressed in the colour-blocked uniforms of the Starfleet, with Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans peppering the crowd.

Trekkie Mark Whitfield went to extreme lengths to participate, wearing a full-body suit to emulate a mugato, a beast from “Star Trek: the Original Series”.

“It looks silly, it’s just a gorilla suit painted white with horns on it. It’s very, very hot. In fact, I was on the verge of collapse when a very kind person gave me a bottle of water because I dehydrated quite badly,” he said.

“Destination Star Trek London” is the first live Star Trek event in Britain for over a decade. Around 17,000 fans came to London to celebrate the 46-year-old TV and film franchise, which has spawned six television series and 11 feature films.

NERDS

Dawn Harris, 26, who had created an Orion slave girl costume and painted herself metallic green, said there was great enthusiasm for the world record attempt.

“There just hasn’t been a convention in the UK for so long. So I think everyone wants to be involved in everything as much as they can. Everybody saw that guy jump out of a plane in space so people are drawn to things like that,” she said, referring to Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking jump from a balloon near the edge of space last Sunday.

“Nerds like achieving missions. We’ve been set a quest and it must be achieved,” Harris’s fianc, Ryan Croft, added.

Outlandish costumes were ubiquitous at the event, which saw Britain’s first Klingon wedding on Friday. Swedish couple Jossie Sockertopp and Sonnie Gustavsson tied the knot in full Klingon attire and exchanged vows in the fictional and guttural-sounding language of the Star Trek characters.

The three-day convention also saw all five captains from the TV series appear on stage together for the first time.

The captains played by actors William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway) and Scott Bakula (Captain Archer) joined forces to officially open the convention on Friday night.

Speaking ahead of the opening ceremony, 81-year-old Shatner appeared moved when discussing the show’s loyal and sometimes obsessive fans in an interview with Reuters.
“It’s an accumulation of a lot of work and a lot of people travelling from all over the world here. It’s sort of monumental in its worth,” Shatner said.

The veteran actor turned filmmaker has released the documentary “Get a Life!” which examines why fans attend conventions.

“The conclusion that I come to is that it’s (Star Trek) mythological,” Shatner told Reuters. “It’s a desire for mythology that we don’t have in this age.”

This picture provided by http://www.redbullcontentpool.com shows pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria and Technical Project Director Art Thompson of the Unites States celebrating after successfully completing the final manned flight for Red Bull Stratos in Roswell, New Mexico, on October 14, 2012. – AFP Photo

PARIS: Daredevil Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking jump raises hopes that pilots and even astronauts can be saved from accidents in the stratosphere, experts said on Monday.

Michel Viso, an expert in exobiology at France’s National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS), said Baumgartner’s leap from 39,045 metres (128,100 feet) “has operational potential” for manned flight at extreme heights.

“In the event of a problem, people can eject at very great altitudes, provided they have a pressurised suit and self-contained breathing system and a parachute and provided they have the appropriate training,” Viso told AFP.

Bernard Comet of France’s Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology (MEDES) said: “It proves at the very least that one can eject at extreme altitude, although this is something that hasn’t been done before.”Both Viso and Comet stressed that the technical and training challenges were major.

In contrast with Baumgartner, who leapt from a balloon, a pilot who ejected would be exposed to an extreme shock from acceleration, said Comet. As in Baumgartner’s descent, there would be the challenge of preventing a spin, which could cause a blackout.

“It increases the window of opportunity for saving astronauts,” Viso said.

It could in theory be used in the classic rocket-and-capsule system if a problem occurs at high altitude during the launch phase, he said.

But ejecting upon re-entry, when a spacecraft is flying at supersonic speed and battling atmospheric friction, would be impossible, Viso said.

“If you re-enter at seven kilometres per second (15,600 miles per hour) in a pressure suit, you will burn up, and so will your suit,” he said.

In the early years of human spaceflight, the Soviet Union’s Vostok system had an ejector seat, designed for launch abort on the ground and for recovery of the one-man crew at the end of the mission.

On his descent, the astronaut ejected at a height of around 6,000 metres (20,000 feet).

The US Gemini system also had an ejection system in the event of a launchpad accident.

Other rocket-and-capsule systems, such as the Russian-Soviet Soyuz, the former Apollo moon missions, China’s Shenzhou and NASA’s planned Orion, have an abort mechanism, comprising solid rocket boosters mounted on top of the crew capsule.

They are designed to haul the capsule to a safe parachute height while the rocket is on the ground or in early launch phase. It separates and falls to earth, to save weight, when the air thins.

Baumgartner’s medical director, Jonathan Clark, lost his wife, Laurel, in the US space shuttle Columbia, which tore apart on February 1 2003 as it re-entered the atmosphere.

The US space shuttle was fitted with a crew evacuation system after the 1986 Challenger disaster.

It could be used during return phase but not during launch phase. Even so, it could not have helped the Columbia crew.

Astronauts could bail out from a side hatch after donning parachutes, but only provided the shuttle was on a stable glide at a height of 20,000 feet (6,150 metres) or less.

Saudi Arabia was the biggest arms buyer among developing countries, concluding $33.7 billion in weapons deals in 2011, followed by India with purchases of $6.9 billion and the United Arab Emirates with $4.5 billion. – File photo

WASHINGTON: Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, pumped up by $33.4 billion in sales to Saudi Arabia, but the international arms market is not likely to continue growing, according to a comprehensive new congressional report.

The United States sold $66.3 billion of weapons overseas in 2011, accounting for nearly 78 per cent of all global arms sales, which rose to $85.3 billion in 2011, the highest level seen since 2004. The previous US record was set in 2008, when arms sales reached $38.2 billion, measured in 2011 dollars.

“The extraordinary total value of US weapons orders in 2011 distorts the current picture of the global arms trade market,” said the report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, calling $66.3 billion in US arms sales “a clear outlier figure.”

While Washington remained the world’s leading arms supplier, nearly all other major suppliers, except France, saw declines in 2011, according to the annual report prepared for Congress.

France signed arms sales valued at $4.4 billion in 2011, up from $1.8 billion a year earlier, but Russia, the world’s number two arms dealer, saw its sales nearly halved to $4.8 billion in 2011. The four major European suppliers — France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy — saw their collective market share drop to 7.2 per cent in 2011 from 12.2 per cent a year earlier.

Saudi Arabia was the biggest arms buyer among developing countries, concluding $33.7 billion in weapons deals in 2011, followed by India with purchases of $6.9 billion and the United Arab Emirates with $4.5 billion.

Total annual global arms sales ranged between $42 billion and $67 billion in the period from 2004 to 2011, reaching a cumulative total of $467.9 billion in that 8-year period.

A weaker global economy, the European financial crisis and the slow international recovery from the recession of 2008 have dampened demand for new weapons, with many countries putting off or scaling back their purchases, the report found.

The report said some countries were focused more heavily on upgrading existing systems and support services, which remained “a rather lucrative” sector for weapons suppliers.

Washington, for instance, generates a steady stream of orders for upgrades, spare parts, ammunition and support services from year to year, even when it does not conclude big deals for new weapons systems, the report said.

Concerns about Iran continued to fuel arms sales to the Middle East and especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but India, Taiwan and other Asian countries were important arms buyers as well, said the report, written by Richard Grimmett and Paul Kerr.

The report predicted increasingly intense competition between European nations and the United States for a small number of global orders in coming years.

It also noted that developing countries were demanding greater cost offsets in their arms contracts, access to more advanced technology and provisions allowing them to produce some weapons at home.

Key US weapons sales in 2011 included:

- $33.4 billion to Saudi Arabia for 84 Boeing Co F-15 fighters, dozens of helicopters built by Boeing and Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp,

- $3.49 billion for Lockheed Martin Corp’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, an advanced missile shield, to the United Arab Emirates, and $940 million for 16 Chinook helicopters built by Boeing,

- $1.4 billion for 18 F-16 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin,

- a $4.1 billion agreement with India for 10 C-17 transport planes built by Boeing,

- and a $2 billion order by Taiwan for Patriot antimissile batteries.

The fall dragged growth for the world’s second-largest economy to 7.8 per cent for the first half of the year, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said. – File photo

SINGAPORE: Oil was lower in Asia Friday as economic growth in China, the world’s largest energy consumer, slowed to its lowest level in three years in the second quarter, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, fell seven cents to $86.01 a barrel in the afternoon and Brent North Sea crude for August delivery shed 16 cents to $100.91.

Traders were unimpressed by China’s GDP numbers despite the fact they met analyst expectations of 7.6 per cent growth, said Justin Harper, market strategist for IG Markets Singapore.

“The figures may well come in at expectations, but these expectations have been gradually slipping in the lead up to this morning’s release,” he said in a commentary.

“What’s bad for China is bad for Asia and with economic growth now at its lowest for three years more warning signs are sounding.”

China’s 7.6 per cent second-quarter growth was the slowest since 6.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 when China and the rest of the world were struggling to emerge from the financial crisis.

The fall dragged growth for the world’s second-largest economy to 7.8 per cent for the first half of the year, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said.

Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings have cut their outlook on India’s sovereign ratings to negative, threatening its investment-grade status, citing slowing policy reforms. – File photo

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee rallied more than 1 per cent on Monday on hopes for government measures to halt a slump in the currency, which hit a record low on Friday, with traders saying action to boost long-term foreign investment would be the most effective step.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at the weekend that the government would unveil measures on Monday. The fall in the rupee has mirrored a decline in economic growth to a nine-year low.

India may introduce bonds for non-resident Indians with an interest rate of 7-9 per cent, a source said.

Traders said measures could also include changes to foreign bond investment limits to attract more inflows into government and corporate securities.

Another possibility is allowing oil importers to buy their dollars directly from the central bank rather than via the foreign exchange market.

However, analysts said these sorts of measures would provide only stop-gap relief and that India needed to improve its economic fundamentals, including addressing its current account deficit, to bolster the rupee.

“The problem with the rupee is fundamental, and technical measures cannot be supportive over a longer period of time,” said Sanjay Mathur, an economist with Royal Bank of Scotland in Singapore.

“But it is also important to note that all the India-centric factors for the fall in the rupee, like lack of reforms, has been priced in. Further weakness will be because of the global risk-averse sentiment,” he said.

At 9:40 a.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 56.48/51 per dollar, up sharply from its Friday close of 57.12/13.

On Friday, the rupee fell to a record low of 57.32, down more than 18 per cent since the start of the year.

Traders said the central bank could target bringing in short-term inflows to stabilise the rupee by tapping the pool of offshore funds held by non-resident Indians.

The Reserve Bank of India has discussed with state-run oil firms steering 50 per cent of their dollar purchases via a single state-owned bank to smooth volatility in the rupee, though no decision has been made, two oil executives said on Friday.

Dollar purchases from oil companies account for around$10-$12 billion of dollar demand in domestic currency markets each month, according to HSBC.

Another action might be to provide a special central bank window to sell dollars directly to oil companies, traders said.

India needs to shore up its credibility among investors, both in sticking to its projected fiscal deficit of 5.1 per cent for the fiscal year ending in March 2013 and to narrow its current account deficit, analysts said.

Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings have cut their outlook on India’s sovereign ratings to negative, threatening its investment-grade status, citing slowing policy reforms.

Moody’s Investors Service on Monday though said it was maintaining a stable outlook for India’s Baa3 rating. It said slowing growth and higher levels of inflation were already factored into the outlook.

In a shot in the arm for the economy, Sweden’s IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, said on Friday it would invest 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) to open 25 stores in India.

Last month, an amount of $1.192 billion was sent home by overseas Pakistanis, up by 13.56 per cent, compared with $1.049 billion received in the same month of 2011. – File photo

KARACHI: Pakistanis sent over $12 billion during the last 11 months of the current fiscal year setting a new record while adding $2 billion in its record of last year.

The State Bank reported on Monday that overseas Pakistanis remitted an amount of $12.069 billion during July 2011 to May 2012, showing an impressive growth of 19.54 per cent or $1972.69 million when compared with $10.096 billion received during the same period of the last fiscal year.

Remittances received from all countries of the world showed growth during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, said the SBP.

Monthly average remittances for July-May 2012 period comes out to $1.097 billion as compared to $917 million during the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, registering an increase of 19.54 per cent.

Last month, an amount of $1.192 billion was sent home by overseas Pakistanis, up by 13.56 per cent, compared with $1.049 billion received in the same month of 2011.

Almost all of this growth in remittances during May 2012 over the corresponding period of the last fiscal year was through banking channels, said the SBP.

The SBP said continued impressive growth in workers’ remittances is the result of efforts made by Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) in collaboration with other stakeholders to facilitate overseas Pakistanis and their families back home.

Since its inception, PRI has taken a number of steps to enhance flow of remittances through formal channels which include: (a) preparation of national strategies on remittances (b) taking all necessary steps to implement the overall strategy (c) playing an advisory role for the financial sector in terms of preparing a business case, relationship building with overseas correspondents, creating separate efficient remittance payment highways and (d) becoming a national focal point for overseas Pakistanis through its round-the-clock call centre (021-111-222-774) with toll-free lines and a separate web-site, etc.

The industrial sector experienced a decline in consumption of gas and posted a negative growth of 6.8 per cent during the period under review when compared to the same period last year. – File photo

ISLAMABAD: The overall consumption of petroleum products in the country has touched 13,879 million tonnes mark during last nine months as compared to 13,802 million tonnes in corresponding period of previous year.

The consumption posted a positive growth of 0.6 per cent, said a data available with this agency.

It said agriculture sector witnessed 40.8 per cent decline followed by the government sector with 20.3 per cent. Similarly, power sector and household sector had also shown negative growth in the consumption of petroleum products for the period under discussion, posting – 5.2 per cent and -8 per cent respectively.

The data said although petroleum products considered as necessary inputs of the power sector, yet the negative growth in power as well as household sector can be attributed to changes in demand behavior toward relatively cheaper alternatives.

The industry sector had shown positive growth of 24.2 per cent in the consumption of petroleum products during the period when compared with previous year, mainly due to recovery in economic activity.

The data said transport sector usually consumes high quantity of petroleum products but surprisingly this sector showed a relative small growth of 3.5 per cent during the period under consideration.

Meanwhile, when contacted, an official source on Sunday said since oil is the more expensive fuel because of Pakistan’s imports at the high international prices the share of oil consumption declined by 3 per centage points during the period under review.

The consumption of petroleum products showed a continuous declining trend since 2001-02, he said and added however, due to positive changes in years 2004-05, 2007-08 and 2009-10, the overall average for last ten years became positive 1.1 per cent per annum.

With regard to share of gas consumption, the official said it stood at the highest equal to 43.2 per cent of the total energy mix of the country, followed by oil with 29 per cent.

The industrial sector experienced a decline in consumption of gas and posted a negative growth of 6.8 per cent during the period under review when compared to the same period last year.

The transport sectors is the most significant sector, posting a positive growth in gas consumption of 14.2 per cent during 2010-11 as compared with 2009-10 and a positive growth of 10.8 per cent during last nine months.

CISA estimates are based on the 80 or so medium and large-sized steel mills which produce around 80 per cent of China’s total output. – AP photo

SHANGHAI: China’s daily crude steel output rose to a record 2.045 million tonnes in the first 10 days of May, data from the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) showed on Friday, defying expectations that poor demand will force mills to pare output.

China’s steel market is over supplied, as demand for the construction metal has stayed sluggish since late last year due to a year-long government clamp down on the property market and the cooling economic growth.

But steel mills, trying too maximize their profits despite a slower-than-expected seasonal recovery in demand, have increased output. China is the world’s largest steel producer.

“Small steel mills are still able to make a tiny profit, and as far as I know, the majority of steel mills haven’t put production cuts to their agenda yet,” said Hu Zhengwu, an analyst with industry consultancy Custeel.com.

Hu expects Chinese daily steel production to stand at around 2 million tonnes in May.

Chinese steelmakers have kept crude daily runs at record levels since March, but industry sources reckon the recent fall in rebar prices and slower consumption could trigger a cut in production by next month.

“I expect steel prices to stabilise a bit in the coming two weeks, but June will not be promising,” Hu added.

Benchmark rebar steel futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange have fallen around 0.6 per cent, or over 200 yuan, since April.

Some mills have already started to postpone delivery of iron ore, as a slow steel market cuts demand for the raw material and producers expect a further drop in prices.

CISA estimates are based on the 80 or so medium and large-sized steel mills which produce around 80 per cent of China’s total output.

While overall cotton output increased, production in Sindh suffered badly owing to heavy rains and floods and declined by 1.112 million bales or 29.32 per cent less over the last year. – File photo

KARACHI, May 3: A record cotton harvest of 14.813 million bales has been achieved this season (2011-12), showing a growth of over 26 per cent over previous year when production stood at 11.698 million bales.

Official figures of phutti (seed cotton) arrival up to end season on April 30, 2012 reveal that the flow during last fortnight (April 15 to 30) was also much higher at 143,441 bales as against 90,589 bales recorded in the same period last year.

Though last year’s devastating floods and heavy rains badly damaged standing cotton crops in Sindh, a remarkable high production in the Punjab did not only help cover up the shortfall but also achieve a historic record production.

A fabulous production in cotton achieved by the Punjab this season could well be judged from the fact that around 4.228 million more bales have been harvested by the province.

The province produced 12.132 million bales or 53.49 per cent more cotton this season over last year when production stood at 7.904 million bales only.

Consequently, mammoth growth in cotton production in the Punjab did not only help cover up heavy shortfall in Sindh caused by heavy rains and floods but also enabled the country to register a historic record in production.

As a result of this, the country produced 3.115 million more bales or 26.63 per cent higher over the previous year when total production stood at 11.698 million bales.

However, cotton production in Sindh suffered badly owing to heavy rains and floods of last year and produced 1.112 million bales or 29.32 per cent less over the last year. In total 2.691 million bales were produced this season against 3.793 million bales last season.

Raw cotton exports were also higher this year at 1.101 million bales as against 0.540 million bales last year.

Similarly, spinning mills also purchased higher volume of cotton at 13.435 million bales compared to 10.937 million bales last year.

The unsold stocks lying with ginners are only 277,562 bales as against 219,955 bales held by them last year.