RECORDER REPORT: KSE mid day update - Business Recorder (blog)

KARACHI: On Tuesday until mid day, KSE-100 Index remained positive with a rising trend since market opening and was at 14,360.17 with a positive change of 131.40 and volume of 68,486,961 shares. High and Low were 14,370.75 and 14,228.77 respectively. Total volume traded in the market was 83,769,259 shares with 316 total traded companies out of which 195 were up, 109 were down and 12 were unchanged.

Fixed Line Telecommunication sector was in the lead with a total traded volume of 16,731,655 shares and P.T.C.L.A as leading company in that sector (15,723,169 shares) followed by Food Producers sector with a total traded volume of 16,207,082 and Engro Foods as the leading company in that sector (15,865,353 shares).

The three top traded companies were Engro Foods with a volume of 15,865,353 and price per share of 63.30 (-3.00), P.T.C.L.A with a volume of 15,723,169 and price per share of 16.87 (0.51) and D.G. Khan Cement with a volume of 7,091,431 and price per share of 45.07 (0.12).

The top three advancers were Nestle Pakistan with price per share of 4,055.00 (100.32), Unilever Pakistan with price per share of 7,199.00 (62.77) and Bata Pakistan with price share of 670.00 (21.13).

The top three decliners were Unilever Food with price per share of 3,200.00 (-116.85), Indus Dyeing with price per share of 380.00 (-10.17) and Island Textile with price per share of 194.00 (-5.43).

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Liverpool report losses of £50 million - Telegraph.co.uk

"We have written off a huge amount on the stadium project. A big chunk of that £50m loss relates to the HKS project - which is now defunct - and associated costs around that."

Following their Liverpool takeover in 2007, Hicks decided to abandon established plans for a new ground in Stanley Park and engaged Dallas-based architects HKS, who came up with an ambitious glass and steel design.

Soon after taking over, FSG scrapped that project but there were still residual costs associated with legal, planning and design fees, which needed to be settled and resulted in a huge deficit.

"With new ownership that was kind of milling around within the club's accounts and there was a very definite need to move that out," said Ayre.

"It is a huge loss but that goes with a lot of other things that nobody was really happy with in that period.

"So rather than dwell on it, we've very smartly made the decision to remove it from the club's accounts.

"It is a big write-off but it means that it's gone forever now and we can move forward now without that around our neck.

"And it also means that we are in pretty good shape in being a sustainable business. It's a positive step forward."

Ayre insisted the amount of money spent on contract terminations was less unusual, although dispensing with Hodgson after six months in charge was out of the ordinary for Liverpool, who have a history of sticking with managers for much longer.

"It's nothing untypical of anything in football. Contracts are typically fixed term," said Ayre of the pay-offs.

"When you make a decision to terminate somebody, the right and proper thing to do is honour the pay-out of that contract.

"This relates to Roy and to some of his backroom staff and also to Christian Purslow leaving. It's standard across football.

"It's unfortunate to have to have them - nobody wants to see anybody go - but in certain circumstances it's right to make a change and that's what that relates to."

On the accounts as a whole Ayre said they were in better shape long-term as a result of the action taken by the owners.

The figures do not include the kit deal signed with American company Warrior Sports, which is worth at least £25million a year.

"If we had not written off these extraordinary costs, we would have been looking at breaking even," Ayre said.

"We have reduced interest charges from £18m to about £3m. That puts us in a much stronger position to utilise our revenues more effectively on the team.

"These figures in many ways represent the commitment of the owners, in paying down the acquisition debts and in other areas.

"What is reflected in these accounts was going on around the time they actually came into the club.

"It's not where we are today. It's a year on, so it was a big commitment at an early stage

"The owners have continued to make changes and commitments.

"They have made some great investment at the start; they cleaned up a lot of what was a problem at Liverpool and they have invested in both the team on and off the pitch.

"They continue to do that and look at what's right - and what works and what doesn't work."

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Talks between US, Pakistan fail - report - Independent Online

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High-level talks on ending a diplomatic deadlock between the United States and Pakistan have ended in failure over Pakistani demands for an apology from the United States, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The newspaper said US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman left the Pakistani capital Friday night with no agreement.

The departure followed two days of discussions aimed at patching up the damage caused by a US air strike last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghanistan border, the report said.

The United States refuses to apologize for the strike.

The incident has damaged the precarious US-Pakistani partnership and provoked outrage in Islamabad, which has retaliated by cutting off NATO supply routes to Afghanistan.

The United States and Pakistan disagree about the precise sequence of events in the deadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies shooting first, and has accused the Americans of an intentional attack on its troops.

The administration of President Barack Obama had been seriously debating whether to say “I'm sorry” to Pakistan's satisfaction - until April 15, when multiple simultaneous attacks struck Kabul and other Afghan cities, The Times said.

“What changed was the 15th of April,” the paper quotes an unnamed senior administration official as saying.

US military and intelligence officials concluded that the attacks were directed by the Haqqani network, a group working from a base in North Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal belt, the report said.

That swung the raging debate on whether Obama or another senior US official should go beyond the expression of regret that the administration had already given, and apologize, the paper said.

Without the apology, Pakistani officials say they cannot reopen the NATO supply routes into Afghanistan that have been closed since November, the report said.

The United States, in turn, is withholding from Pakistan between $1.18 billion and $3 billion (2.26 billion euros) of promised military aid.

The continuing deadlock does not bode well for Pakistan's attendance at a NATO meeting in Chicago in three weeks, assuming it is even invited, The Times said.

US administration officials acknowledged Friday that the stalemate would not be resolved quickly, the paper noted. - Sapa-AFP

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Asghar Khan petition: SC rejects interior ministry's report - DAWN.com

Supreme Court of Pakistan. — Photo by AFP

ISLAMABAD: During Wednesday’s hearing of Asghar Khan’s petition, the Supreme Court rejected the interior ministry’s report on the 1990s financial scams of the Habib Bank Limited and the now defunct Mehran Bank Limited, DawnNews reported.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez heard the case.

The petition was filed in 1996 by Tehrik-i-Istiqlal chief Asghar Khan requesting the apex court to look into allegations that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had provided money to a large number of politicians before the 1990 elections by dishing out Rs140 million to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad and stop Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) from winning the election.

During today’s hearing, the bench was of the opinion that the report submitted by the interior ministry was based on the recollections of Rehman Malik and therefore was not acceptable.

The report quoted Malik as saying that he had been delegated the responsibility to investigate the issue by Naseerullah Babar but that reports of those investigations were no longer available.

Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court was informed again that the inquiry reports by two commissions believed to be insightful and revealing about the financial scams were still missing.

The commissions were set up to investigate the scams in pursuance of notifications issued on June 17, 1994, and January 11, 1996.

Also during today’s hearing, Attorney General Irfan Qadir told the bench that the interior and law ministries had been requested to prepare reports on the issue and that those reports would soon be presented before the court.

Moreover, the National Accountability Bureau’s deputy prosecutor told the court that evidence was being collected against Younus Habib, the then head of Mehran Bank.

The hearing was subsequently adjourned to May 10.

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