Pakistan Stock Market News

Pakistan Stock  Market News   Talks deadlocked on deemed duty replacement Talks between oil refineries and the government over the issue of replacing deemed duty with processing fee have met a deadlock as the refineries have refused to accept processing fee offered by government from US$3.5 to US$5 per barrel crude oil, and demanded raise in deemed duty from 7.5% to 10%. Oil refineries were receiving more than US$10 per barrel through deemed duty when the global oil prices stood at US$147 per barrel. At the current 7.5% the refineries earned average deemed duty of US$8.6 per bbl during 8mths'09, as per our estimations. And at the current crude price of US$40-36/bbl, the deemed duty stands at US$4.53/bbl, significantly better then the proposed US$3.5/bbl processing fee for NRL & PRL and US$5/bbl for ATRL and BOSI.   Pakistan clears $517m Eurobond payment The country made entire payment due on Eurobond amounting to $517 mn indicating the country's ability to meet its external obligations after it was able to stem its external imbalances. Pakistan launched the five-year $500 million Eurobond on February 12, 2004, due in 2009, which was a successful return of the country to the international capital markets after a gap of five years. The bond was oversubscribed by 5 times when it was launched with price of 370bps above US Treasury (3.046 %) to yield 6.75 %.  However under the current global economic scenario any new issue will be unattractive.   Net foreign inflows fall 12.7pc in 7MFY09 Foreign investment fell to around $2.23 bn in 7MFY09 as compared to $2.25 bn in the same period last year mainly due to outflows in portfolio investment. Total foreign portfolio investment outflows were recorded at $356 mn as compared to net inflows of $0.4 mn during 7MFY08. FDI however keep its upward momentum with increase of 1.3% to stand at $2.58bn in the period. High FDI reflects international investors' confidence in the country fundamentals with population of 160 mn of which majority lies in the working age. Details showed that foreign direct inflows came from various regions and countries. The trend of inflows did not change except that inflows from the North America witnessed a sharp fall.