Country’s first quake-resistant steel launched
LAHORE (Staff Reporter): Mughal Steel has developed a new product to enable the construction of building infrastructures to withstand the earthquake movements. In order to improve the safety of the buildings during earthquake occurrences, Mughal Steel Limited has launched Pakistan's first ever earthquake resistant steel under the brand name of Supreme. The product is effective for all types of buildings - from houses to high rise buildings. The new chemically reinforced and strengthened quality steel has been designed to enable the steel consumers to plan and construct buildings with an added element of safety during earthquakes. The Supreme Steel bars have been designed to provide a more consistent resistance to seismic loads and shall have a higher/uniform ductility than any other Steel bars manufactured in Pakistan. Supreme is the result of extensive R&D, experimentation and testing efforts of Mughal Steel’s scientists.
It may be mentioned Mughal Steel is a listed steel manufacturing company of Pakistan with a history of over 50 years of excellence to its credit.
TDAP chief visits FPCCI
LAHORE (Staff Reporter): Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) SM Muneer visited FPCCI regional office, Lahore on Thursday. Speaking on the occasion, CEO TDAP said the government has started power projects to overcome energy crisis, but it would have to take steps for early completion of these projects. He said that Pakistan would have to extend its trade cooperation with friendly-states to enhance the country’s export. Regional Chairman FPCCI, Mian Rehman Aziz said the FPCCI highlights the problems faced by the business community at all forums. He also asked the government to control smuggling and under invoicing as it damages the local industry. “The FPCCI has a very clear stance on construction of large water reservoirs, high mark up rate, high banking spread, highest ever government borrowing from domestic and international channel, tax-to-GDP ratio, under invoicing, good governance, law and order and shortage of energy,” he said.
Pakistan Business Council hosts energy forum
LAHORE (Staff Reporter): Pakistan Business Council (PBC) held a forum on “Pakistan’s Power Sector: Electricity Availability and Cost” on Thursday. Ehsan Malik (CEO of PBC) stated that this is the third event organised by the PBC in 2016. In January, the PBC hosted over 100 Chinese delegates in CPEC-related B2B interaction. In March, the PBC organised a seminar on potential opportunities in trade with Iran. Welcoming the guests, Atif Aslam Bajwa, Chairman PBC and President & CEO of Bank Alfalah, underlined the critical importance of availability, reliability and cost of grid power while making long term investment decisions. Speaking on the occasion, Khalid Mansoor (CEO of HUBCO) shared with the audience his assessment of the availability and cost of grid power in the coming years. He also listed the various projects that are being undertaking by HUBCO on the generation side, including the Thar Coal project.
Also speaking on the occasion, Tayyab Tareen (CEO of K-Electric) outlined the performance of K-Electric since its privatization and also listed the impediments in K-Electric’s efforts to provide uninterrupted power to consumers.
Dale Sinkler (Chief Operating Officer, Generation and Transmission, K-Electric) spoke about K-Electric’s generation and transmission plans. He discussed the shortcomings in the power policy which limits private sector investments in transmission. Asif Saad (Chief Operating Officer, Distribution, K-Electric) discussed the investments made and future projects for distribution by Pakistan’s largest integrated electric utility company. He further pointed out that returns on distribution are the lowest as compared to generation and transmission and that these need to increase to make the sector attractive for the private sector.
Stock market hits new record
KARACHI (Staff Reporter): Bulls returned to the stock market with full force on Thursday as the index rallied by 367 points to close at the highest ever level of 36,685 points. Rally in the market is attributed to the 9 scrips that are expected to be included in MSCI Emerging market index as MCB, up 4.97%, ENGRO, 2.04%, and HUBC, 2.26%, closed in the green zone. Pressure on oil sector was witnessed amid depressed global crude oil prices. Biggest laggards of the aforementioned sector were OGDC, down 1.24%, and ATRL, 0.48%. HCAR (up 4.12%) rallied on back of depreciation in the yen, observed analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan at JS Global. Volumes increased by a staggering 74% to 468m shares while value also increased by 57% to Rs 16b/153$m. Heavy foreign flows along with reducing political noise in the country attracted investors to push the index to close at its highest ever level, said dealers at sales desk Topline brokerage.
KEL was the volume leader with over 93m shares traded while gaining by 7.1%. Other small cap stocks like PTC, TRG and PIBTL were also among the volume leaders. In anticipation of tax relief in upcoming budget for telecom sector, heavy flows were witnessed in PTC which also led the stock to close at its upper limit.