September 16, 2003	Tuesday	Rajab 18, 1424

KARACHI, Sept 15: Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL) declared on Monday, final cash dividend at 75 per cent tied to a bonus issue at 60 per cent, which proved punters right who had been passing around the word that a bonus was in the offing.

By the time the board announced the financial figures and the appropriations at 35 minutes past mid-day, the share in POL had already come under heavy speculative trading with the intra-day price range as wide as Rs53— between high and low of Rs468 and Rs415. The stock finally settled at Rs420, which was Rs16.05 lower than the overnight value of Rs436.05 on a volume of 58 million shares.

Some analysts and traders had been putting faith in the company to keep up to its tradition of declaring a bonus in every alternate year over the last five year period. For the year ended June 30, 2003, the company announced profit after taxation amounting to Rs2.43 billion, which though 24.7 per cent higher than Rs1.95 billion earned in 2002, fell short of analysts’ forecasts, which ranged between Rs2.58 and Rs2.75 billion in net earnings. The final cash dividend at 75 per cent proposed by the board on Monday was in addition to the interim already paid at 100 per cent, making an aggregate of 175 per cent for the year against 160 per cent paid the year before.

Pretax profit at POL improved 34 per cent to Rs3.55 million, from a year ago profit at Rs2.65 billion, but due to higher incidence of tax at 32 per cent, compared with 27 per cent last year, the net earnings were up by 24.7 per cent. Net sales at POL grew 9 per cent to Rs6.46 billion, from Rs5.93 billion.