News-Prime Bank Stock Price Indexes
Handsome gains
March 2003, was the month of recovery at the Karachi Stock Exchange after some intense onslaught staged by the bears during January and February this year.

ECONOMIC HORIZON
Debt restructuring: a way out
By Asad Sayeed and Ejaz Rashid
This article is based on a report prepared by Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), titled Pakistan's external debt burden: causes, remedies and complexities.
An unsustainable external debt burden, as the above quotation suggests, severely compromises economic prospects of a developing country.

IN FOCUS
Fish Industry
By Ismat Sabir
All over the world man is half fed due to 60 per cent animal protein gap on the daily diet. It is estimated that the situation would further deteriorate by 2025, when the population shall exceed to 260 million.

Emerging economic scenario in Southeast Asia
By Rashid Ahmed Mughal
The economic and political scene in the world has and is changing after the 9/11 incidents. The world is now being daunted by super power dictates and whosoever does not tread their path is either being termed as terrorists or is being treated as foe. This policy has both short and long term ramifications -- worldwide. 

Concerns for improved facilities in poor nations
When Adam Malga and her friends walk for miles to fetch water to feed their families, they stop and wonder. 'Is this really safe? Is it clean?' the Malian teenager asks. The groundwater in the west African nation has been contaminated by bullets, polluted by human waste and has become a breeding ground for water-borne illness. 

RATING ROUNDUP
Publicly Notified Ratings by JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company LIMITED
Adamjee Insurance Company Ltd.
Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) Rating AA-
ON RATING WATCH

SPOTLIGHT
Economic checks and balances
By Mehmood-Ul-Hassan Khan
Checks and balances seem to be the mantra of every government, as in a political system they provide sustainability in the economic process and ease implementation of macro policies. Reliability of the political system saves the economic interests of the investors. Economics works in integration, and the philosophy of checks and balances is vital for the quick economic revival and poverty alleviation.

REFLECTION
Globalization and poverty
The world economy is in a state of what is commonly viewed as unprecedented growth. But with this growth has come dangerous and destructive economic disparity

STOCK MARKET CONFIDENCE
NEWS - CresBank STOCK EXCHANGE CONFIDENCE BAROMETER
Standing at low
During December 2001, level of investors' confidence in the stock market remained low as compared to that prevailed during the preceding month. The News-CresBank Confidence Barometer for December was measured at 38 per cent on an aggregate basis. Despite dropping down from 47 per cent of November, the barometer managed to maintain the same category of 'very low to low'. A week-to-week analysis reveals that the barometer managed to go as high as 44 per cent, in the middle of the month. and dipped as low as 33 per cent toward the month-end, hardly float above the 'very low' category.

The Stock Market Confidence Barometer developed by Vital Information Services Pvt. Ltd. is a unique instrument that expresses in percentage the level of investors' confidence prevailing at the Karachi Stock Exchange taking into account each and every share transaction. The model electronically tracks the number of shares traded (adjusted for free float) at the KSE along with their respective prices, to find out the exact movement of investors' money. The investors place their funds world wide in other than safe-haven stocks when they are confident of the prevailing economic and political situation. On the other hand, when they are not so confident of the economic and political developments, they transfer their funds from those comparatively risky items to the safe-havens. This phenomenon is the foundation stone of this Confidence Barometer.
-- M. Bilal Aftab

CORP CORNER