November 4, 2001	Sunday	Shaba’an 17, 1422

KARACHI, Nov 3: The week beginning Monday would herald important events for the stock market; two new equity offerings and dividend announcements from the two top volume leaders are all scheduled for next week.

Board meeting of Hub Power Company is slated for Monday (Nov 5), when the directors would announce the figures for the financial year 2000-01 and also declare the final dividend. The company had received last month the much-awaited lenders’ approval for the 17 per cent interim dividend, declared by the Board earlier in May 2001. Analysts are expecting Rs4 per share to be announced on Monday. In a company report of October 30, brokerage Taurus Securities placed the fair value for the Independent Power Producer’s stock at Rs25.

On Thursday (Nov 8), Pakistan Telecommunication Company — PTCL, the second of the two volume leaders at the KSE would unveil the financial figures for the year 2000-01 and declare a dividend. Analysts are visualizing payout in the region of Rs2.25 to Rs2.50. Invest Cap stated in its ‘value seeker’ report on Saturday that the PTCL carryover (COT) volume had increased significantly in the telecom stock in the week ended on Friday to 58 million shares on average compared with 40 million shares the earlier week.

“Heavy profit taking by local financial institutions coupled with some selling from foreigners caused its COT volume to increase”, analysts said. On Wednesday, the stock price dipped to Rs17.45, but speculation about earnings and dividend provided some strength towards the end.

Analysts said that the actual numbers that come out of the Board rooms of Hubco and PTCL would determine whether investors rake up or dump those stocks.

Public subscription to the 13.2 million shares of WorldCALL Multimedia, a subsidiary company of First Capital Securities Corporation — has been called on Wednesday (Nov 7). Out of the total paid-up capital of Rs530 million, Rs398 million has already been subscribed by the sponsors or privately placed. In a presentation to the members of the KSE on Friday, the company claimed that it had introduced for the first time in Pakistan, an optic fibre technology through which various services such as internet and cable could be provided through one wire and that it already was lapping up success with the operations in Lahore. For the year 2001, the company had reported Rs612 million in profit. The 10-rupee share in WorldCall is provisionally trading at around Rs 12.20 levels since October 30.

On Saturday (Nov 10), National Bank of Pakistan, would release the prospectus for sale of Rs186.5 million worth of shares to the general public. The issue would be open for public subscription from November 19 to 22. It has been provided that in the event of oversubscription to the offer, State Bank of Pakistan would also offer 5 per cent of its holding in the Bank, which would in effect double the size of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) to Rs373 million.