OGDC seeks joint ventures with Iranian oil companies

Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC), a public listed oil and gas exploration company, has showed interest to enter into joint venture with Iranian companies.

Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) is taking interest in areas of possible cooperation of joint ventures with Iranian National Oil Companies for any opportunity, as and when it arises, a full-fledged techno-economic evaluation will be conducted by OGDCL.

A preliminary meeting was held earlier this month between Iranian delegation headed by the General Director Asia- Pacific of Ministry of petroleum, Islamic Republic of Iran and the additional Secretaries from Ministries of Water and Power and OGDCL representatives.

LPG brokers slam OGRA notification

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) prices across Pakistan have been increased by at least 16 percent or by Rs 13 per kilogramme (kg) in order to ensure compliance with the latest directive from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA).

A press release issued here on Wednesday revealed that the OGRA has, through notification No OGRA-LPG-17(242)/11 dated September 19 informed Pakistan’s 11 LPG producers that the controversial petroleum development levy (PDL) intended to facilitate imports and financially shore up Progas Pakistan Limited, a bankrupt LPG importing company facing litigation, and other LPG brokers has to be implemented positively by Wednesday, September 21, failing which “strict punitive action” shall be taken against noncompliant producers.

Recovery After Crash

After the index breaking the 9,900 level last month, started to rise gradually. When such a crash comes there is a level where short sellers start profit taking, so there is a slight change in the trend. Secondly the prices came on the lower level that they attracted the individuals to buy shares. As the future contracts for December were over and new month started so a fresh buying in Jan contracts was obvious. Another factor in my opinion which played the most vital role in supporting the index was the news that Prime Minister has postponed the decision to levy capital gain tax for next year. This made the institutions to come to the market for fresh purchasing. We saw that the index gained about 250 points in two days.

Subscription for OGDCL shares opens

The three-day subscription for Oil and Gas Development Company Limited’s 21.505 million ordinary shares will open from Thursday.

This offer is being made at a price of Rs110 per ordinary share of Rs10 each, inclusive of a premium of Rs100 per share, but excluding the share transfer fee.

Application for shares must be made for 500 shares or in multiples of 500 shares only.

The minimum amount of application for subscription of 500 shares is Rs55,075 in case of physical transfer and Rs55,005 in case of transfer under the book entry system.

Foreigners hold 20pc of free-float on KSE

Foreign investment in the country’s capital market is generally dismissed as of little consequence and an ex-chairman of the Karachi Stock Exchange commented a little while ago that the market would be better off without it.

Such disillusionment stems from the mood swings of a foreign portfolio manager: “The outflow of funds is as quick as its inflow,” says a market guru. But the influence of the off-shore equity investment in the local bourses is growing.Admitting that the foreign funds hold just about 4 per cent of total market capitalization and the share of overseas funds in average daily volume is just about 3.5 per cent, analysts at the JS Capital Market have calculated that approximately 17 per cent of the share represents foreign investment in the float adjusted capitalization.

Commentary on December 2006 Stock Crash

In the past two years we have seen some tremendous highs and lows in the stock market. Yet again we witness a major decline in the index. It all started in mid-December 2006, the causes being:

• Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) listing and undervalued sale of Global Deposit Receipts (GDRs);
• Selling in the banking sector due to acquisitions, and;
• Primarily, suspension of Callmate (CTTL) shares’ trading and the six times its pad up capital stuck in the continuous finance (CFS) and Badla market.

Only five IPOs at stock market in 2006

Despite the continuation of investor-friendly policies and a decent growth in corporate earnings, the local capital market remained slow in terms of attracting new listings compared with the previous year.

The calendar year 2006 was a depressing year in terms of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). While the performance of the market is primarily examined by the index change, the growth of capital market can be determined by looking at the fresh issues brought into the market through IPOs.

With 2006 approaching its end, we are presenting an analysis of the stock offerings that took place during 2006.

OGDC GDS over-allotment option used

The Privatisation Commission (PC) on Monday announced that Citigroup, Goldman Sachs International and BMA Capital had exercised the over-allotment option and sold additional 53.294 million ordinary OGDCL shares in the form of Global Depository Shares (GDSs). This transaction completed the final element of institutional offering, said a PC statement.

Including the over-allotment option and retail offering, gross proceeds of the offer are expected to amount to Rs49,353 million ($811 million). The retail offer of 21.505 million shares to investors in Pakistan at a price of Rs110 per share will commence this month and is expected to complete within a few weeks thereafter.

OGDCL GDS eats away scrips value on home ground

Equity experts questioning the success OGDCL Global Depository Shares (GDS) have observed that the price fixation issue has resulted in reducing its weightage by more than three per cent at Karachi bourse.

The index mover OGDCL saw its value clipped from November 15 to 30 at the same time when Government of Pakistan was holding road shows to make GDS issuing success in the international markets.

The scrip was carrying approximately 23 per cent weightage in KSE 100-share Index before the issue of indemnification between the Company (OGDCL) officials and Government officials was highlighted in press on November 10, 2006, they said.

Lower-than-expected OGDCL offer price

Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) announcement of below the market expectation price for Global Depository Shares (GDSs) and secondary offering of Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) paved way for bearish spell at the Karachi stock market on Friday.

KSE 100-share Index lost three technical barriers of 10,600, 10,500 and 10,400 and fell 230.56 points to close at 10,388.19 points.

The junior 30-Index also registered the same level of decline of 230.99 points to 13,131.32 points.

OGDCL alone contributed 109 points to the total decline of the day in indices. The scrip opened on its lower lock and remained at that level to close at Rs120.85, shedding Rs6.35 with 2.613 million shares traded, Live Securities reported.