Foreign private sector invested $820.7 million in Pakistan in the nine months ending March 2013. That’s a decent jump of 60 percent over the same period of last year. The devil, however, lies in the details.
If the number one rule for businesses is to integrate, then Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is doing precisely that. And, if the number one reason behind integration is increasing margins, then the oil marketing giant is hastily moving forward with its plans.
With nine-month net profits doubling in the period ending March 2013, DGKC’s recent result is something to write home about. A 5 percentage point jump in gross margins and an even bigger increase in operating and net margins during 9MFY13 showed that the company did well on its accounts, though the quarterly result did not match market expectations for 3QFY13.
Auto firms in Pakistan have been operating for decades now. Yet they haven’t been able to outsmart the imported cars. Whatever may be the reason – inefficiency on the manufacturers’ front or policy inconsistency, the outcome remains unfavourable for the local industry as customers prefer imported variants over local alternatives.
With only 23 days left to General Elections 2013, all eyes are on Punjab. And with the analyses making rounds, Northern and Central Punjab is tipped to be the battlefield, as experts opine that PTIs emergence as a substantial political force has made this part of Punjab, an open ground.
Not many people know this. But one of the biggest economists of 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, thought that gold possession had a Freudian thing to it. Keynes was an ardent follower of the famous Austrian psychoanalyst and many of his thoughts were based on the Freuds multi-staged infantile psychology.
It does not settle well when oil and gas production by and exploration and production (E&P) company continues to go down. And unstiffening of production at Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL) has kept a lid on the companys share price, which has disappointed the benchmark index over the last six months.
