At the psychological barrier
By M. Bilal Aftab
The News-Prime Bank Composite Index of VIS recorded gains during April 2003. however, the Composite index is still to break the psychological barrier of 5,000 points. On April 30, 2003 the index closed at 4,757.2 points, which was 336.2 points or 7.6 per cent higher than 4,420.9 points marked at the end of March 2003.

Ex-Enron CFO faces 31 more charges
By Kaleem Omar
When Enron Corporation, a Houston-based energy trading giant with close links to senior Bush administration officials including President George W. Bush, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2001, it was the biggest corporate bankruptcy in world history. Now, all the Enron chickens are beginning to come home to roost, one by one.

IN FOCUS
Fan industry: local & export markets
By Ismat Sabir
Fan is a daily use item. Its utility increases, especially in the summer season. The industry is producing about 5 to 6 million fans per annum and meeting successfully the local as well as the export demand. Out of the total production, approximately 30 per cent fans consist of pedestals, 7 per cent brackets and the remaining 63 per cent are ceiling fans.

Consultant hired to advise on forex reserves
By Kaleem Omar
The government has hired Mercer Investment Consulting to advise on the management of the country's growing foreign exchange reserves, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Friday. 

REFLECTION
Bank's right of foreclosure of mortgages without filing suit
(An interpretation of Section 15 of the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance, 2001)
By Saalim Salam Ansari
The provision of Section 15 of the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance, 2001 is a highly debatable and controversial provision, according to which the Financial Institutions / Banks can sell the mortgaged property by public auction in case of default as provided in sub-section (2) of Section 15, which runs as under: -

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.

SPECIAL REPORT
A case of trust discount?
By Farhan Mahmood
Some 85 million Americans own shares in the 2,700 companies that trade on the New York Stock Exchange, and almost all have lost large sums of money in recent years, many because of outright fraud. Some analysts opine that investors will not be returning to the stock market until there is concrete evidence that Corporate America is clearly not running a cynical scheme to defraud the ordinary shareholder.

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