PTCL Q1 profit down 6.9pc

Pakistan Telecommunication Co Ltd (PTCL) posted a 6.9 per cent fall in quarterly profit on Monday, a drop analysts said came as competition ate into international call revenue and outweighed subscriber growth.

PTCL – the country’s fourth-largest listed company with a market value of around $2.9 billion – said net profit in its first quarter to end-September fell to Rs5.15 billion ($85million) from Rs5.53 billion a year earlier.

PTCL’s control of Pakistan’s land-line sector has been eroded since the government opened up the market in 2002, but it still dominates the sector, and also operates mobile phone and Internet services.

PTCL posts Rs20.7bn net profit

The Board of Directors of PTCL reviewed and approved the audited financial statements of the Company for the year ended on June 30, 2006.

PTCL earned total revenue of Rs69.085 billion and posted a net profit of Rs20.777 billion. Besides, a final cash dividend for the year was approved at Rs2 per share, which is in addition to the interim dividend already paid at Rs3 per share.

The operating cost this year was Rs41.687 billion as against Rs39.608 billion last year.

KSE breaches four barriers in reverse gear

The Karachi stock market breached four barriers in reverse gear – 9900, 9800, 9700 & 9600 – on Friday against the expectation as there was no big negative news for the day. The index plunged by 370.44 points to 9,584.79 amid low turnover.

Leading local institutions and brokerage houses offloaded their holdings to manipulate market for their vested interest, a broker said.

Index remained under selling pressure throughout the day and recorded intra-day low of 9,555.03 points.

Stocks futures decline

The stocks futures open interest at Karachi Stock Exchange fell during last week, and settled at Rs 15.3 billion on Friday, December 16, as selling in some scrips forced the investors to offload their positions.

Futures contract investment fell by Rs 0.75 billion from previous Friday’s (December 9) open interest of Rs 16.04 billion. The decline in open interest was caused by intra-day corrections during the week where equity prices used to rise in the early part of the trading session, only to see a great chunk of those gains wiped off by the end of the trading session.