CNG sale suspended for 2 days in Punjab

LAHORE: The sale of Comprised Natural Gas (CNG), at many CNG stations in various cities of Punjab including provincial capital Lahore, has been suspended for two days, which has multiplied consumers’ sufferings on Monday morning, Geo news reported.

Those cities affected by the two-day weekly suspension of CNG included Lahore, Qusoor, Sheikhupura and Multan, sources said.

The citizens voiced severe criticism of decision of Sui Northern Gas Company (SNGC) regarding two-day weekly closure of CNG sale. They said the pumping stations are closed with barriers and there is writing put up on them regarding gas sale closure.

The consumers were of the view, they got installed CNG kits in their vehicles in an attempt to avoid the exorbitant prices of petrol and diesel; but however, the government wants to usurp the remaining buying capacity of the public.

Meantime, the transporters unwarrantedly raised the fares owing to the non-availability of the CNG.

Oil prices mixed in Asian trade

SINGAPORE: Oil prices were mixed in Asian trade on Tuesday following news that OPEC's crude-producing nations were set to hold output quotas unchanged in key talks.

However, prices were supported by anticipated demand from snowstorms over much of Europe and northeastern US as well as political tensions over a border dispute between key oil producers Iran and Iraq, traders said.

New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, gained five cents to 73.77 dollars a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February fell nine cents to 72.90 dollars.

"Weather and geo-politics are supporting oil even in the face of overwhelming supply and a glut of spare production capacity," said Phil Flynn of PFG Best.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said it would not change output quotas in key talks to be held in Luanda Tuesday as current prices were at satisfactory levels.

"The price is excellent," said Saudi Minister Ali al-Naimi, OPEC's most influential member.

The cartel's secretary general Abdullah El-Badri said the powerful members of the 12-member grouping must tackle the effects of high crude stockpiles, which experts say could weaken the market when demand falls in the spring.

Saudi adopts 2010 budget with $18.7bln deficit

RIYADH: Oil-rich Saudi Arabia unveiled a budget for 2010 on Monday that forecasts a deficit of 18.7 billion dollars for the second year in a row but still boosted public spending, the finance ministry said.

The new budget estimates spending at 144 billion dollars, the highest projected expenditure ever, as allocations for development projects increased by almost 10 billion dollars to 70 billion dollars, the ministry said.

The budget projects revenues at 125.3 billion dollars, the ministry said in a statement after the cabinet gave its approval at its weekly meeting.

Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said the projected budget deficit will shrink if oil prices increase.

The ministry also said actual spending in 2009 stood at 146.7 billion dollars while actual revenues were 134.7 billion dollars, about 16 percent higher than initial projections due to higher oil income.

The ministry estimated the 2009 deficit at 12 billion dollars, lower than the projected deficit of 17.3 billion dollars, again due to a higher than expected oil price.

This is the first actual budget deficit for the OPEC kingpin since 2002. In intervening years the kingdom has amassed huge surpluses on the back of high oil prices.

Actual spending for the current year was the highest ever and exceeded the 127 billion dollars initially projected.

The ministry said that the increase in spending came due to higher payments for expansion projects at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, military and security projects, and pay increases for some government employees.

The government awarded 2,350 contracts in the course of the current fiscal year at a cost of 37 billion dollars, the ministry said.

In next year's budget, the government allocated 36.5 billion dollars to education to build hundreds of new schools and 16 billion dollars to the health sector to build dozens of new hospitals, it said.

Actual revenues for 2009 topped the projected income of 109 billion dollars as oil prices recovered from around 40 dollars a barrel to more than 70.

Riyadh, which sits on the world's largest proven crude reserves, is currently pumping more than eight million barrels per day.

The ministry said that the trade balance in 2009 dropped by a massive 51 percent to 104 billion dollars while the balance of payments slumped by 84.5 percent to 20.5 billion dollars due a sharp drop in oil income, the ministry said.

Public debt, a majority of which is domestic, has dropped to 60 billion dollars from 63.2 billion dollars.

But as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product, public debt rose to 16 percent from 13.3 percent at the end of 2008.

Nominal GDP shrank 21 percent in 2009 to 375 billion dollars from 475 billion dollars a year ago, the finance ministry said.

Financial assistance to improve Pak economy: IMF

WASHINGTON: The financial assistance to Pakistan by IMF and other financial donors will help bring improvement in the economic condition of the country, IMF's director of external relations Caroline Atkinson said Saturday.

Speaking about Pakistan here at a press conference, Caroline Atkinson said Pakistan is receiving abundant financial assistance from different organizations which holds particular significance for its economy.

“Pakistan had faced a number of problems in the past and that is why it has earned the support of the financial institutions including IMF,” she said, adding, “This assistance will provide a push to the economy of Pakistan.”

Pakistan had been granted approval for 11.30 billion dollar financial assistance from the IMF, out of which 5.32 billions have been released. The IMF will approve the issuance of the fourth tranche of the loan in its Board of Directors meeting to be held on December 21.

Leverage product for stock markets still pending

KARACHI: Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) did not approve the Leverage product for the stock markets even after the lapse of several months.

Talking to Geo News, Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) Director Amin Yousuf said KSE sent to the SECP new Leverage product with the name of Margin Trading after approval; but, the Commission did not respond positively on this.

He told that Commission Chairman Salman Sheikh did not give any hint during the meeting before Eidul Adha that this product will soon be approved.

Amin Yousuf said the income of Brokerage Houses dangerously dwindled owing to the absence of this product, warning if the product is not soon approved, the brokerage houses will be forced to limit their operations.

Pakistanis forced to buy expensive LPG

KARACHI: The LPG price in the country is Rs10 to 34 ahead of the gas price in the international market.

According to the industry sources, the price of the imported LPG is Rs76/kg at Karachi Port.

The sources said the gas is being sold at Rs90/kg in Lahore, Rs100 in Peshawar, Rs105 in Murree and the Gilgit people are buying the gas at Rs110/kg.

The sources said the local production price of gas rocketed from Rs17 to 75 per tonne during the last four years in the country and a case in this connection is being heard in the Supreme Court (SC).

He also informed that 95 percent LPG is indigenously prepared; but, its sale on the international prices is injustice to the people.

FPCCI condemns anti-Pakistan statement of FICCI

KARACHI: Sultan Ahmed Chawla, President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) has taken a very serious notice to the recommendation contained in the report of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) demanding New Delhi to react militarily to Pakistan and conduct surgical strikes against Pakistan, use water as tool to destroy Pakistan's agriculture, ban all imports and restrict travel between the two countries.

He said that at a time and age when resort to force is considered to be the least productive option, if FICCI advocates the use of force against its neighbors and demands action to destroy Pakistan, it just exposes its nefarious intention.

He said that there is a huge potential of trade between both the neighboring countries and FPCCI and FICCI should work hand in hand and in harmony for promoting two-way trade and investment for further developing economic and commercial ties.

He asserted that the relations between India and Pakistan have always been governed by political interests rather than by economic interests, that's why we have suffered huge economic losses over the years.

Both the apex Chambers should therefore cooperate and coordinate with each other for achieving a common task of economic prosperity. It is unfortunate that when the entire world is engaged in lobbying for resumption of talks between India and Pakistan through confidence building measures, including free travel and trade initiatives, FICCI is publishing such an irresponsible and immature report,' he added.

Oil mixed in Asian trade

SINGAPORE: Oil was mixed Wednesday in Asian trade ahead of a key US oil inventory report, amid simmering tensions over Iran's nuclear programme, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, dropped 29 cents to 78.08 dollars a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for January delivery was flat at 79.35 dollars a barrel. Both contracts had closed higher Tuesday.

A report from the American Petroleum Institute indicated weaker demand in the United States Tuesday. It said oil inventories rose by 2.9 million barrels, gasoline stocks were up 3.4 million barrels and distillates up by 1.1 million barrels in the week to November 27.

Gold price hits record high above $1,217 an ounce

LONDON: The price of gold struck a record high level above 1,217 dollars an ounce in trading here on Wednesday as the US currency weakened against the euro.

Gold hit 1,217.23 dollars on the London Bullion Market one day after breaking through the 1,200-dollar barrier for the first time.

After reaching a new high on Wednesday, gold pulled back slightly to trade at 1,214.30 dollars at about 0855 GMT.

Gold has smashed record after record over recent days and weeks on the back of inflationary fears and increasing moves by central banks to diversify assets away from the dollar, which has weakened against the European single currency.

A falling greenback makes dollar-denominated gold cheaper for buyers holding stronger currencies, pushing up demand for the metal and eventually its price.

In European foreign exchange trading on Wednesday, the euro rose to above 1.51 dollars.

The yellow metal, whose two main drivers are jewellery and investment buyers, has also won favour in the uncertain economic climate which has been fuelled by Dubai's debt crisis. Gold is traditionally viewed as a safe-haven investment.

After surging above 1,200 dollars, the market is staring "into the unknown," said VTB Capital commodities analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.

"Resistance could yet prove to be very strong and we are looking for a sustained push above it to signal gains to 1,230/50 dollars.

"There is little doubt that the market remains bullish and even though we expect trading to subside later this month, the downside is still limited. At the moment we favour little profit-taking," he added.

The price of gold has soared by more than 55 percent in value over the past 12 months.

Gold prices have won support from central bank purchases of the metal.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week announced it had sold 10 tonnes of gold to Sri Lanka's central bank for 375 million dollars as part of a restructuring of its financial resources.

The record run for gold comes also after a recent newspaper report that India was mulling the purchase of more IMF gold reserves.

Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold meanwhile on Tuesday announced it had eliminated all of its hedges on the world's largest gold production and reserves, hoping to profit from rising gold prices.

The gold hedges were contracts whereby Barrick -- the world's number one gold producer -- sold gold ounces it expected to produce in advance for a fixed price.

In the meantime, if the price of gold increased, Barrick was obligated to sell its gold at the lower price or buy it in the marketplace at a higher price to meet its contractual obligations.

Hedging is normally used to insulate companies from market price fluctuations and provide a level of financial stability for their operations.

Barrick announced in September it would pull the plug on its remaining gold hedges, as it was not benefiting from any increase in the gold price, which is forecast to continue rising over the long term as deposits are depleted.

SBP writes off agri-loans for terror hit areas

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan has announced to write off agricultural loans for the areas affected by terrorism under Prime Minister’s relive package.

SBP has issued directives to the banks to immediately stop collection on Rs560 million loans comprising principle and mark up in Malakand Division and tribal region. These loans should be treated as cleared.

The central bank also directed the banks to undertake extensive advertisement of this scheme and make announcements of waiving the loans for the areas in question.

Spokesman SBP Karachi has instructed the borrowers to submit their applications at their respective banks up to Dec 25.