Gul Ahmed Textile Mills announced upgrading its IP Telephony (IPT) voice and security infrastructure besides unifying communications system to raise service standards, improve employee collaboration and enhance operational efficiencies. According to a press release Thursday, Gul Ahmed improves collaboration with Cisco Unified Communications System and it deploys 1,900 Cisco Unified IP Devices. The network is imperative to the functioning of Gul Ahmed, seamlessly connecting toll-free extension dialing between employees across all units, including a single operator to guide all incoming and outgoing call traffic, to and from all units. Deputy Manager IT Infrastructure and Converged Communications Rashid Ghazanfar said it was decided that the upgradation would be done in two phases. Call Manager, 7825 servers will be replaced with the more powerful 7835s, Voice Gateways, 2620s will be replaced by 2821s, and Cisco PIX 500 Firewalls by ASA 5520s in the first phase. The next phase will envis...

By Tanveer Ahmed KARACHI: Contrary to the claims of billions of rupees pledged shares' misuse by brokerage houses, a meagre amount of just Rs 103 million of the small investors is withheld with them, Chairperson National Standing Committee on Finance, Fauzia Wahab said on Wednesday. This is in sharp contrast to National Standing Committee on Finance's directives to Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to probe alleged misuse of Rs 100 billion of investors' security deposits with the brokers. Interestingly, Fauzia Wahab also chaired the said meeting last month. She stated this while taking to newsmen during a visit to Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE). When she was asked insistently about the progress in the said case, Fauzia categorically denied about the Rs 100 billion scam. "This amount is only Rs 103 million," she informed. A total of 213 complaints are received in this regard, she replied when her attention was drawn to proceeding of Finance commit...

Bullish trend again witnessed in Karachi Stock Exchange on Tuesday when most of the time bourse hanged in the balance and observed a seesaw where self-assured investors remained busy in share trade frequently and propel the market to land into positive column at the closing time which gained 0.9546 per cent following the buying in leading scrips by government institutions as well as local investors. The Karachi Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 index gained 50.92 points to close at 5,384.87 points as compared to 5,333.95 points on Monday. Volume remained at 140,966 million shares significantly downward compared to Monday’s 177.966which is far below the average of 250 million shares traded daily last year.

KARACHI: The Karachi stock market faced selling pressure as a majority of investors’ hopes crashed after the State Bank of Pakistan kept the interest rate unchanged in the Monetary Policy announced on Saturday, analysts said on Monday. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share index declined by 43.47 points to close at 5,333.95 points as compared to 5,377.42 points traded in the previous session. The KSE 30 index also fell 3.10 points and closed at 5,198.91 points as against 5,195.81 points of the previous session. The KMI 30 index shed 95.62 points to close at 7,087.30 points as compared with 7,182.92 points of the previous session. The market turnover decreased by 6.88 percent to 177.66 million shares as compared to 190.79 million shares traded in the previous session. The overall market capitalisation also declined by 0.64 percent to close at Rs 1.689 trillion as compared with Rs 1.700 trillion traded in the previous session. Out of 264 companies, 107 closed in positive zone, 146 i...

KARACHI: The inflation rate would drop down to half by June 2009, yet this rate for the current fiscal year (CFY) would remain higher than the government target. State Bank Monetary Policy Division’s Director, Dr. Hamza Ali Malik told Geo News in its ‘Tezi Mandi’ program that the Central Bank’s estimations show that the inflation rate would drop down by half to 12 percent, but the inflation for the full fiscal year would average 20 percent. Hamza Malik said that according to the first quarter 2008-2009 figures, financial costs work out to 5 percent of the gross production costs. He said that paucity of power, gas and law and order situation were the major snags in the industrial developments. He said that the cut in interest rate at this stage was not congenial for keeping the forex reserves at satisfactory levels as well as for keeping the value of rupee stabilized.

KARACHI: Chairperson National Assembly’s Finance Committee Fauzia Wahab will visit Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Wednesday. KSE officials told Geo News on Saturday that she will undertake the visit on the invitation of KSE. During the visit Fauzia Wahab will meet KSE board members. She will brief them about the progress made in connection with demutualization of stock exchanges of the country and government’s policy for the development of equity market.

The last day of business week Friday was the fourth consecutive day in Karachi Stock Exchange when bourse witnesses bullish activities where self-assured investors remained busy in share trade frequently and propel the market to land into positive column at the closing time which gained 3.7467 per cent following the buying in leading scrips by government institutions as well as local investors. The Karachi Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 index gained 194.20 points to close at 5,377.42 points as compared to 5,183.22 points on Thursday. Volume remained at 190,797 million shares significantly downward compared to Thursday which is far below the average of 250 million shares traded daily last year. The market opened on Friday with positive note and gained near 100 points within hour but within first session the bourse went down slightly on account of profit taking tactics of traders while the second session the bourse further gained some points and at the closing time of the market achi...