Stocks close at 6-1/2 month high

KARACHI: A rally in Pakistani banking shares helped lift the bourse to end on a six-and-a-half month high on Tuesday as foreign investors snapped up local stocks on the back of expected strong corporate results, dealers said.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-share index gained more than one per cent for a second straight day, closing up 1.22 per cent or 147.70 points, at 12,284.62 points, its highest close since July 26, 2011.

Volume fell to 162.11 million shares, compared with 196.3 million traded on Monday.

“The bullish trend continued on renewed foreign investment led by banking stocks in the earnings announcement session at KSE,” said Ahsan Mehanti, director at Arif Habib Corp Ltd.

Foreign investors bought shares worth a net $3.47 million on Monday. Data for Tuesday will be released later in the day.

Winners on the KSE included Bank Alfalah, which closed 2 per cent higher at 12.75 rupees, and National Bank of Pakistan, which rose 2.85 per cent to 46.58 rupees.

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Islamabad committed to expand economic relations with Tehran

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is committed to develop relations with Iran in various fields and in particular in field of economy.

This was stated by Advisor to the Prime Minister on finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in an interview with Islamic Republic NewsAgency here Monday.

The official said that there is enormous potential to enhance trade ties between Iran and Pakistan.

Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said that Iran and Pakistan are united by the bond of history, faith and culture. He said that officials of Iran and Pakistan had spent a productive day to bring the bilateral ties closer.

The advisor urged the businessmen of the two countries to work together to enhance cooperation in trade sector.

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Urea prices fall

ISLAMABAD: Urea prices have decreased by Rs400 per 50-kg bag due to timely import and distribution of the product, an official of ministry of industries told APP on Monday.

He said the prices eased to Rs1,800 from Rs2,200 in the local market. The prices are likely to ease further after arrival of 500,000 tons of urea in coming days, he added.

He informed that as many as 700,000 tons of urea fertiliser had already been offloaded and distributed across the country to meet requirements of farmers in Rabi season.

Timely import and check on hoarding and black marketing will help maintain sufficient quantity of the fertilisers for Kharif sowing, he remarked.

He said that some local urea manufacturing units were not operating at their optimum level due to gas load management programme which resulted in demand-supply gap and price hike of the commodity in the local market. The imported urea was costing the country about Rs2,600 per 50 kg bag and the government was providing Rs1,300 subsidy per bag to provide relief to the growers to increase crop output, he added.—APP

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