The market continued to move sideways during the week. The lack of speculators' interest was evident from COT behaviour — investment, volume and COT rates registering declining trend. PSO remained on the top continuing the highest COT investment, at Rs 1.39 billion. COT investment in HUBCO declined to Rs 1.29 billion. PTCL witnessed a major decline to Rs 835 million. The speculative interest seems to have shifted from PTCL to PSO. Although, PTCL results were in line with the general expectations, PSO's results were on the higher side. In the wake of expected developments on PSO privatization front in the coming months, speculators are likely to continue eyeing PSO against PTCL.

PAKISTAN TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANY

The company has announced third quarter results posting over Rs 13.09 billion profit after tax for July-March period, up 6.4 per cent from last yearís profit of Rs 12.298 billion. The increase in profit can be attributed to higher revenue mainly due to increased international incoming voice traffic. On the domestic front, additional revenue seems to have come from premium rate service and pre-paid calling cards. Profit was further improved due to reduction in financial charges, decreasing by 37 per cent to Rs 2.28 billion. Looking at nine months performance, the full year profit is estimated around Rs 19 billion and dividend payment to be around 25 per cent. Though PTCLís monopoly is to end in year 2002, the real competition is still 24-36 months away. The initial success of its cellular subsidiary should significantly mitigate the impact of competition in the fixed-line segment.

CRESBANK

The year ending December 31, 2001 was disastrous for the bank resulting in Rs 1.269 billion operating loss before provision as compared to a profit of Rs 806 million for the previous year. While the bank earned about Rs 1,485 million from sale of investment during year 2000, it posted Rs 595 million loss under this head for the year under review. Although, the bank has posted Rs 806.6 million loss after tax, it was made possible only due to reversal of Rs 417 million provision for diminution in value of investment. The book loss was further offset by transfer of Rs 347 million from general reserve and special reserve and profit brought forward (Rs 102.5 million) from the previous year. All this helped in arriving at accumulated loss of about Rs 357 million as at December 31, 2001. While the bank paid a total of 41 per cent dividend for the year 2000, it could not pay any dividend for the year 2001 due to huge losses.

SUZUKI MOTOR COMPANY

The company has released financial results for Jan-March 2002 period posting profit before of about Rs 229 million as compared to a profit of Rs 64 million for the corresponding period of last year. This improvement can be attributed to an effective control on cost of goods sold and increase in other income. Sales improved from Rs 2,244 million to Rs 2,352 million and cost of goods sold came down from Rs 2,126 million to Rs 2,095 million. Other income went up from Rs 3 million to Rs 40.4 million. However, selling and administrative expenses and financial and other charges went up. Selling and administrative expenses grew from Rs 49.6 million to slightly more than Rs 52 million and financial and other charges went up from Rs 7 million to about Rs 17 million.

NATIONAL LEASING

The company has posted Rs 7 million profit before tax for Jan-March 2002 quarter as against a profit of Rs 31 million for the corresponding period of previous year. The reduction in profit can be attributed mainly to lower income, both in lease income and income from investment/finances. However, higher provision against doubtful debt was compensated by write back of Rs 3.5 million provision against investment. The cumulative impact translated into a reduction in basic earning per share, from Rs 0.35 to Rs 0.06 on the share having face value of Rs 5.00.

SUNSHINE COTTON MILLS

Despite increase in sales, the company posted higher gross loss for the year ending September 30, 2001 as compared to previous year. Sales went up from Rs 172 million to Rs 268 million but cost of goods sold escalated from Rs 190 million to Rs 288 million. The other factors contributing to loss were increase in administrative expenses and financial charges. Administrative expenses increased from Rs 3.7 million to Rs 5.6 million. Accumulated losses as at September 30, 2001 were around Rs 241 million, an addition of Rs 41 million during the year under review.