KARACHI, July 22 - Pakistan hopes to start using an equity market stabilisation fund worth 20 billion rupees , finance minister Naveed Qamar said, in the wake of 30 percent fall on the benchmark index <.KSE> since April.
Speaking at the Karachi Stock Exchange on Tuesday, he said the National Investment Trust will manage the fund.
"We intend to move through NIT and give a substantial amount of boost to the stock market through the NIT, I think we can start with 20 billion rupees and hopefully start in this week," Qamar said.
The fund was proposed earlier this month by the Karachi Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan . The KSE index fell to 10,036.14 last week from a life-time high of 15,739.25 points on April 21.
Qamar, the privatisation minister who also took charge of the finance portfolio after a coalition partner pulled out of the cabinet in May, said the three-and-a-half-month-old government was focussed on the macroeconomic challenges facing Pakistan.
Inflation running at over 21 percent is at its highest in three decades, the fiscal and current account deficits are unsustainable, and foreign exchange reserves barely cover three months imports.
Qamar said Pakistan was in talks with Saudi Arabia to defer payments for crude oil sales during the current fiscal year.
"There will be an announcement soon from Saudi Arabia, which will have a very positive affect on our current account position," he said.
Earlier this month the Financial Times newspaper reported that Saudi Arabia had agreed in principle to defer payments for crude oil sales to Pakistan expected to be worth about $5.9 billion during the current 2008/09 fiscal year .
Qamar said there were hopes that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's visit to the United States later this month will help raise prospects for non-military aid.
Last week, two U.S. senators unveiled a $7.5 billion, 5-year aid bill for Pakistan aimed at boosting civilian ties.
The government also plans on bringing its net borrowing from the central bank to zero percent to reduce pressure on the bank to maintain a tight monetary stance.
As of June 28, with two days left until the end of the 2007/08 fiscal year, the government's incremental borrowing from the State Bank was 633 billion rupees .
The State Bank Governor Shamshad Akhtar had her first visit to the KSE on Monday and dealers said she reinforced expectations that interest rates will be increased.
Qamar said the KSE's demutualisation was passed in the Finance Bill and the SECP chairman Razi-ur-Rahman said it should be completed in the next 3 months.
By Sahar Ahmed
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Singapore c.bank sees more downside risks to markets
Singapore's central bank said it is closely monitoring financial markets in the wake of the crisis surrounding U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and warned of big downside risks in global markets.
"Significant challenges and downside risks in the international financial markets remain and financial institutions and investors should stay vigilant," the Monetary Authority of Singapore said on Monday.
"The direct impact of the credit crisis on financial markets and financial institutions in Singapore has been relatively modest so far," the central bank said.
Singapore's Straits Times stock market index <.FTSTI> has fallen 16 percent this year. The country's three banks have suffered relatively modest writedowns on their debt investments as a result of the credit crunch.
The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve called on Sunday for sweeping measures to lend money and buy equity, if necessary, in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee $5 trillion in debt -- close to half the value of all U.S. mortgages.
The U.S. government plan to bolster the government-sponsored mortgage financiers helped calm markets on Monday, but did little to allay fears about the health of the U.S. financial system.
The MAS declined to comment on whether any of Singapore's foreign reserves are invested in debt from Fannie and Freddie.
Singapore had about $177 billion in its foreign reserves as of the end of June.
Foreign central banks, mostly in Asia, hold $979 billion of the $5 trillion bonds and mortgage-backed bonds sold by Freddie and Fannie.
Monday, July 7, 2008
SGX switches to new QUEST-ST system
SINGAPORE : The Singapore Exchange rolled out a major upgrade to its trading engine on Monday with little trouble.
The exchange switched entirely to its new QUEST-ST system, which replaces the old Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) trading engine that has been in operation for 19 years.
Officials at the Singapore Exchange could breathe a sigh of relief as trading on the new QUEST-ST system went 'live' without a hitch on Day One.
The new system is said to be able to handle much higher trading volumes.
Last year, average daily trading volumes stood at 2.5 billion shares.
M Ramaswami, Chief Operations Officer, SGX, said, "If you dealt with more than a billion shares in a single counter or in a single trade, we had some issues dealing with that...so those are the kinds of limitations we get over with this (new system)."
One such blip occurred in October last year.
When more than billion shares of membrane filter company Memstar were traded, the old system failed to keep up.
With the new system, SGX is hoping that it can prevent such problems.
On average, the SGX spends S$20 million to S$30 million a year to maintain and upgrade its systems and networks. - CNA/ms
Source: CNA
The exchange switched entirely to its new QUEST-ST system, which replaces the old Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) trading engine that has been in operation for 19 years.
Officials at the Singapore Exchange could breathe a sigh of relief as trading on the new QUEST-ST system went 'live' without a hitch on Day One.
The new system is said to be able to handle much higher trading volumes.
Last year, average daily trading volumes stood at 2.5 billion shares.
M Ramaswami, Chief Operations Officer, SGX, said, "If you dealt with more than a billion shares in a single counter or in a single trade, we had some issues dealing with that...so those are the kinds of limitations we get over with this (new system)."
One such blip occurred in October last year.
When more than billion shares of membrane filter company Memstar were traded, the old system failed to keep up.
With the new system, SGX is hoping that it can prevent such problems.
On average, the SGX spends S$20 million to S$30 million a year to maintain and upgrade its systems and networks. - CNA/ms
Source: CNA
SPH, SGX AND FTSE LAUNCH NEW FTSE ST CHINA TOP INDEX
Singapore, 7 July 2008 – Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), Singapore Exchange (SGX) and FTSE Group (FTSE) are pleased to announce the launch today of a new index within the FTSE ST Index series.
The FTSE ST China Top Index is a tradable index that currently tracks the 20 largest China stocks listed on SGX. To be eligible for inclusion in the new index, companies must have either at least 30% ownership by the Chinese government, companies or nationals; or derive at least 50% of revenues from China.
The inclusion of the new revenue criterion allows companies that were previously not eligible for the existing FTSE ST China Index to be included in the new FTSE ST China Top Index. Such companies include Ferrochina, Hsu Fu Chi International and Yanlord Land Group.
“The FTSE ST China Top Index is created in response to demand from institutional investors and fund managers in China and around the world for an index that will give them instant exposure to a smaller, readily tradable basket of highly liquid Singapore-listed China stocks. This is part of our commitment to making the FTSE ST Index series a comprehensive barometer of the Singapore securities market,” said Mr Ignatius Low, Money Editor of The Straits Times newspaper under SPH.
Both the FTSE ST China Index and the FTSE ST China Top Index will offer opportunities for the creation of and investment into China index-linked products, including exchange traded funds (ETFs), structured products and other derivatives. The FTSE ST China Index, with its larger basket of 50 component stocks, will continue to act as a general market barometer of the state of China companies listed here.
Companies in both indices are selected based on their market capitalisation levels as of 20 June 2008. They are subject to the same index calculation methodology, free float weighting and liquidity screening criteria as the revamped Straits Times Index (STI) and other FTSE ST indices which were launched on 10 January 2008.
The full list of the new index's constituents is at Annex 1.(See below)
The FTSE ST China Top Index will be added to the real-time, intra-day values of the STI and other FTSE ST indices displayed at the following websites:
SPH http://btstocks.asiaone.com/keyIndices.html
SGX http://www.sgx.com
NextView http://www.investasiaonline.com
ShareInvestor http://www.shareinvestor.com and http://www.listedcompany.com
FTSE will also display the end-of-day index values on its website at http://www.ftse.com/st
The FTSE ST China Top Index will also be covered by Xinhua Finance Limited, China’s premier financial information and media service provider, with whom SGX is working to profile the component stocks of the FTSE ST China Index. Xinhua Finance will report regularly on the China companies listed on SGX that make up both China-themed indices through the “FTSE ST China Index Stock Alerts” e-mail service. Subscribers will be able to receive the latest news and exclusive C-level interviews on their desktop computers or mobile devices. Details of this free news service are available on SGX’s website at http://www.sgx.com/ftsestchina
Click here for full detail
Annex 1
FTSE ST China Top Index starting constituents (20 constituents)
* Stocks not included in the FTSE ST China Index
Source: SGX
The FTSE ST China Top Index is a tradable index that currently tracks the 20 largest China stocks listed on SGX. To be eligible for inclusion in the new index, companies must have either at least 30% ownership by the Chinese government, companies or nationals; or derive at least 50% of revenues from China.
The inclusion of the new revenue criterion allows companies that were previously not eligible for the existing FTSE ST China Index to be included in the new FTSE ST China Top Index. Such companies include Ferrochina, Hsu Fu Chi International and Yanlord Land Group.
“The FTSE ST China Top Index is created in response to demand from institutional investors and fund managers in China and around the world for an index that will give them instant exposure to a smaller, readily tradable basket of highly liquid Singapore-listed China stocks. This is part of our commitment to making the FTSE ST Index series a comprehensive barometer of the Singapore securities market,” said Mr Ignatius Low, Money Editor of The Straits Times newspaper under SPH.
Both the FTSE ST China Index and the FTSE ST China Top Index will offer opportunities for the creation of and investment into China index-linked products, including exchange traded funds (ETFs), structured products and other derivatives. The FTSE ST China Index, with its larger basket of 50 component stocks, will continue to act as a general market barometer of the state of China companies listed here.
Companies in both indices are selected based on their market capitalisation levels as of 20 June 2008. They are subject to the same index calculation methodology, free float weighting and liquidity screening criteria as the revamped Straits Times Index (STI) and other FTSE ST indices which were launched on 10 January 2008.
The full list of the new index's constituents is at Annex 1.(See below)
The FTSE ST China Top Index will be added to the real-time, intra-day values of the STI and other FTSE ST indices displayed at the following websites:
SPH http://btstocks.asiaone.com/keyIndices.html
SGX http://www.sgx.com
NextView http://www.investasiaonline.com
ShareInvestor http://www.shareinvestor.com and http://www.listedcompany.com
FTSE will also display the end-of-day index values on its website at http://www.ftse.com/st
The FTSE ST China Top Index will also be covered by Xinhua Finance Limited, China’s premier financial information and media service provider, with whom SGX is working to profile the component stocks of the FTSE ST China Index. Xinhua Finance will report regularly on the China companies listed on SGX that make up both China-themed indices through the “FTSE ST China Index Stock Alerts” e-mail service. Subscribers will be able to receive the latest news and exclusive C-level interviews on their desktop computers or mobile devices. Details of this free news service are available on SGX’s website at http://www.sgx.com/ftsestchina
Click here for full detail
Annex 1
FTSE ST China Top Index starting constituents (20 constituents)
| BIO-TREAT TECHNOLOGY | FERROCHINA * |
| CAPITARETAIL CHINA TRUST * | FIBRECHEM TECHNOLOGIES |
| CHINA AVIATION OIL (S) CORPORATION | HONG LEONG ASIA * |
| CHINA ENERGY | HSU FU CHI INTERNATIONAL * |
| CHINA HONGXING SPORTS | MIDAS HOLDINGS * |
| CHINA SKY CHEMICAL FIBRE | PACIFIC ANDES * |
| CHINA XLX FERTILISER | PEOPLE’S FOOD HOLDINGS * |
| COSCO CORPORATION (S) | SYNEAR FOOD HOLDINGS |
| DELONG HOLDINGS | YANGZIJIANG SHIPBUILDING HOLDINGS |
| EPURE INTERNATIONAL | YANLORD LAND GROUP * |
* Stocks not included in the FTSE ST China Index
Source: SGX
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