KARACHI (May 09, 2008): The cotton hedge trading has been resumed on Karachi Cotton Exchange after a gap of 32 years with the finalisation of a deal of 200 bales of the 2008-09 crop for August delivery. Market sources told Business Recorder on Thursday that traders and textile mills were anticipating that new cotton crop would also be short of demand.

NEW DELHI (May 09, 2008): India's government Thursday halted trading in futures contracts for key staple foods and for rubber as it battles to avoid an election drubbing due to high inflation. The government suspended futures trade in basic foods such as lentils, soya and potatoes for four months, saying the move was aimed at stopping price rises driven by speculators.

KARACHI (May 09, 2008): The Exchange Companies that fail to bring into the country remittances will have their licences cancelled and in case the difference in exchange companies and interbank rupee-dollar parity does not come within 50/60 paisas band the State Bank of Pakistan will disallow the export of currency notes, said the Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Shamshad Akhtar.

KARACHI (May 09, 2008): The State Bank of Pakistan has announced to launch the second-phase reforms for the exchange companies and will issue regulatory guidelines that will set in motion corporate governance reforms for the exchange companies. This announcement was made by the SBP governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar during a meeting with the heads of exchange companies held at SBP head office on Thursday.

ISLAMABAD (May 09, 2008): The Independent Power Producers' (IPPs) fuel stocks have hit rock bottom, stirring a fear that the gap between power demand and supply would further widen, resultantly increasing loadsheding duration in June and July.

KARACHI (May 09, 2008): While the advocates of Basel II believe that such an international standard can help protect the international financial system from the types of problems that might arise should a major bank or a series of banks collapse, the Managing Director of Standard & Poor's Ratings Services says that Basel II is far from a complete solution for anyone trying to evaluate bank capital objectively.

LONDON (May 09, 2008): The government is cognisant of the energy crisis facing the country and has initiated steps by involving all the stakeholders to overcome the shortage of power which is key to the sustainable economic growth.

ISLAMABAD (May 09, 2008): The Federal Board of Revenue has collected a meagre amount of Rs 124 million withholding tax from CNG stations during July-March 2007-2008 against annual projection of Rs 700 million, reflecting a major shortfall of Rs 576 million.

ISLAMABAD (May 09, 2008): The sugar industry has accepted the demand of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to carry out sales tax audit of extended period upto April 2008 to check production record of the sugar mills particularly in Sindh province.

ISLAMABAD (May 09, 2008): The recovery scheme of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has yielded positive results by bagging Rs 16.8 billion bad/irrecoverable loans out of a settled amount of Rs 22 billion, said Syed Iqbal Haider, counsel for the SBP.