Online News Paper

SINGAPORE: Oil prices eased in Asian trade on Thursday as traders took note of high distillate inventories, which indicated that a global economic recovery was still sluggish, analysts said.
New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, slipped 27 cents to 72.15 dollars a barrel. The September contract expires later Thursday.
Brent North Sea crude for October delivery fell 26 cents to 74.33 dollars.
Market sentiment was dampened by data released by the US Department of Energy (DoE) Wednesday which showed distillate stocks, which were “a real indicator of economic growth,” at 27-year highs, said Jason Feer, Asia Pacific general manager of energy market analysts Argus Media in Singapore.
“There’re these huge overhangs with middle distillates… Distillate stocks are still extremely bloated,” he said.
Distillates, which include diesel and heating fuel, fell 700,000 barrels last week whereas analysts had pencilled in a gain of 500,000 barrels, but Feer said volumes were “still 15 to 20 percent above last year.”
He added that high levels of distillate stocks indicated that “economic growth is still quite sluggish.”
The drawback in crude prices reversed gains on Wednesday, when data from the DoE showing an unexpected fall in crude inventories, indicating healthy demand, pushed the market up.
The report showed American inventories of crude falling by a massive 8.4 million barrels last week, snapping a three-week run of gains.
That took traders completely by surprise because the market expected an increase of 1.5 million barrels.

KARACHI: The government has imported 2,000 tonnes Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) to meet the demand during month of Ramzan and to maintain prices.
The spokesman of LPG Association of Pakistan said comprehensive strategy has been chalked out for countrywide distribution of LPG. He said in last Ramzan, the price of LPG cylinder for domestic use was Rs.830 whereas the prices have been reduced this year.
Now, LPG cylinder for domestic use is available at the rate of Rs.650, which with nominal increment will be available at Rs. 670 during Ramzan due to increase in demand.

Chase Sapphire, Chase Sapphire with Ultimate Rewards-a new credit card from Chase. Targeted At Households With Incomes Exceeding $120000:JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. credit card lender, is taking aim at the market for affluent card holders dominated by American Express Co.
Chase Sapphire, targeted at households with incomes exceeding $120,000, has no pre-set spending limit and holders earn a point for every dollar they spend. Chase is seeking customers beyond its 152 million cards issued in North America.
Our desire is to make sure we have exactly the right product in the hands of our customers, Gordon Smith, chief executive officer of the card division, said in an Aug. 17 interview. “If we cannibalize ourselves and move customers from one product to another, but we capture more of their business, then we’re absolutely fine with that.”
JPMorgan’s card operation lost $1.59 billion in the past three quarters as consumer spending fell 2 percent since its peak at the end of 2007, the deepest retrenchment since 1980. The division isn’t expected to earn a profit in 2009 or 2010.
The card unit is showing signs of recovery. The default rate in July fell for the second month in a row, to 7.92 percent from 8.04 percent in June, a signal the worst recession since the 1930s may be ending. Charge-offs usually track the U.S. unemployment rate, which fell last month to 9.4 percent, the first decline since the recession began in December 2007.
The card business is a mirror image of the economy and it’s been an extremely difficult time,” said Smith, who was president of AmEx’s global commercial card business before joining JPMorgan. “Cards are an important part of how we live our lives and I think we’ll see a strong future once we’re out of the difficult economy.
Visa, MasterCard
The Sapphire card will be available on the Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. networks, an advantage for JPMorgan because those cards are accepted in more places than American Express, Smith said. Visa was accepted at 8 million U.S. locations last year compared with 7.9 million for MasterCard and 4.6 million for American Express, according to the Nilson Report, an industry newsletter.
American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault told investors Aug. 5 his cardholders on average spend 3.5 times more than Visa cardholders and 4.5 times more than MasterCard users.
“Merchants are looking for customer spending and our cardmembers provide it,” Chenault said. “Despite all the claims by Visa and MasterCard about success in the affluent segment, where it really counts — in the results they haven’t moved the dial at all.”
Smith’s challenge will be convincing customers Sapphire’s rewards are a better fit, Bill Hardekopf, CEO of industry newsletter LowCards.com, said in an e-mail. Rewards should be evaluated based on an individual’s amount and type of spending, he said.

NEW YORK: Oil prices rose Wednesday as the market reacted favorably to signs of an increase in future demand in China and a further loosening of the recession’s grip in the U.S.
That trumped data showing a continued slump in the nation’s appetite for oil.
Benchmark crude for September delivery climbed 71 cents to settle at $70.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent prices added 43 cents to settle at $72.89 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Prices jumped in morning trading after the government said the U.S. trade deficit increased slightly in June. The Commerce Department reported that imports rose for the first time in 11 months.
The International Energy Agency, based in Paris, said demand for crude this year may not be as weak as once thought, largely because of China.
The reports from both sides of the Atlantic were enough to offset news that crude supplies continue to grow in the U.S.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said oil placed into storage rose for the third straight week.
Gas prices are certainly much lower than they were last year, but the bulging supplies of crude haven’t resulted steadily decreasing gas prices as the driving season nears an end.
Refiners continue to cut back on production, which has kept gasoline prices relatively stable for the past month or so.
Pump prices added two-tenths of a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.645 a gallon. A gallon of regular unleaded is 11.6 cents more expensive than it was last month, but it’s still $1.154 cheaper than the same time last year.
While prices have risen slowly for weeks, prices at the pump are about where they were at the end of June.

KARACHI: The Royal Bank of Scotland said on Wednesday that MCB Bank agreed to buy 99.37 percent of RBS Pakistan shares for around $87 million.
A source had told Reuters on Monday that the deal would be valued at around $90 million.
The Pakistan sale is part of moves by part-nationalised RBS to sell assets globally as it tries to exit up to 36 countries and focus on its mainly U.K. core businesses.
“This is an important transaction for us as it strengthens our franchise in the key urban centers and broadens our product offering to our retail as well as corporate customers,” Mian Mohammad Mansha, Chairman of MCB, said in a letter to the Karachi Stock Exchange confirming the deal.
MCB will add more than 75 RBS Pakistan branches in 24 cities, taking its total network to 1,139 branches, while its deposits would increase to 413 billion rupees ($4.98 billion).
MCB said it would fund the transaction entirely through internally generated cash reserves and would not be contingent on any external fund raising.

KARACHI: The remittances sent to the country by overseas Pakistanis has recorded an increase of 19 percent in July and set a record of being highest in a single month.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the foreign remittances rising by 120 million dollars stood at 747.2 million in July 2009 compared to 627.2 million dollars in the same period last year.
Previously the highest amount of remittances in a single month was 739.4 million dollars in the month of March 2009.

SINGAPORE: Oil rose in Asian trade Tuesday but gains are being capped by concerns over a glut in global crude supples and weak energy demand, analysts said.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, climbed 25 cents to 70.85 dollars a barrel. London’s Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September was up 15 cents to 73.65 dollars.
Oil prices rose to historic highs of more than 147 dollars a barrel in July last year. They plummeted to near 30 dollars in December after a financial and economic crisis in the United States escalated to affect other economies around the world and hit oil demand.

KARACHI: Aggressive buying at the local capital market pushed the benchmark KSE-100 Index above 8000 level which closed at 8,082 on Monday.
The stock market opened upbeat and remained in the green territory throughout the session on approval of additional loan by the IMF board and expectation of receiving the aid soon. Investors actively took positions in energy and cement sectors.
The KSE-100 Index has crossed the level of 8,000 points for the first time in the last eight months.
The trade volume was recorded at 180 million shares today.
OGDC emerged as today’s volume leader which advanced by Rs4.50 to Rs94.68.
KSE-30 Index surged by 285 points to finish the day at 8,628.

MCB taking RBS Pakistan, KARACHI Pakistan : Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) Board of Directors have given a go ahead to the proposed acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland Pakistan.
According to Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) announcement, the agreement is yet to be signed between the two parties following the approval.

SINGAPORE: Oil retreated modestly in Asian trade on Thursday after overnight gains that were fuelled by the weakening dollar, analysts said.New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery eased 32 cents to 71.65 dollars a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for September delivery dropped 37 cents to 75.14 dollars barrel.
Both contracts closed stronger Wednesday as investors returned to commodities including oil, drawn by the weakening US currency which makes crude futures an attractive investment option.
Crude futures are priced in the US currency and become cheaper when the dollar falls.
The euro surged from 1.40 dollars last Friday to above 1.44 dollars, climbing to its highest level since December at 1.4445 dollars on renewed hopes of a global economic recovery.
In late Wednesday US trade, the euro traded at 1.4411 dollars.
The dollar is seen as a safe-haven currency and tends to do better during times of economic uncertainty, while the riskier euro generally rises when investors feel upbeat about the global economy.
“The US currency has come under pressure from the rise in oil prices, although we expect the latter to fall back,” analysts from London-based Capital Economics consultancy said.
“The rally in oil prices is likely to falter. Many forecasts still seem to be overly influenced by the boom that started in 2004.
“But final demand is set to remain weak for years.”
Data released Wednesday by the US Department of Energy (DoE) painted a mixed picture of oil demand in the United States, the world’s biggest energy user.
The widely monitored DoE report said US crude oil stockpiles soared by 1.7 million barrels in the week ending July 31, three times more than the average analyst projection.
Inventories of distillates, which include diesel and heating fuel, sank by 1.1 million barrels, instead of the 900,000-barrel increase expected.
Gasoline reserves fell by 200,000 million barrels, far less than the drop of 1.3 million barrels anticipated.

LONDON: Europe’s main stock markets edged upwards on Wednesday, after slim gains overnight on Wall Street, as investors examined the latest corporate results for clues about a possible global economic recovery.In late morning trading, London’s FTSE 100 index of top shares added 0.28 percent to 4,684.47 points.
The Paris CAC 40 gained 0.62 percent to 3,497.62 points and Frankfurt’s DAX 30 rose by a marginal 0.08 percent to 5,421.78 points near the half-way stage.
On the foreign exchange market, the European single currency sank to 1.4384 dollars.
“Weighing on the UK’s leading index were the miners, but these losses were counter balanced by gains in the banks, led by Lloyds,” said IG Index trader Phlip Gillet.
He added: “There is an air of stability across the markets in the UK at the moment.”
In London, Britain’s state-controlled Lloyds Banking Group said on Wednesday that it plunged into a first-half net loss of 3.124 billion pounds, rocked by soaring bad debts from the takeover of HBOS.
The loss, equivalent to 3.7 billion euros, 5.3 billion dollars, contrasted with a net profit of 1.954 billion pounds in the first half of 2008.
However, Lloyds shares rocketed 13.38 percent to 95.49 pence after it also predicted that loan impairments had likely peaked — and added that the second half looked “tough but manageable”.
In Paris, the AXA insurance multinational reported a 38-percent drop in first-half net profit on Wednesday to 1.323 billion euros (1.9 billion dollars) but earnings were twice the figure expected by analysts. In reaction, the price of its shares leapt 5.45 percent to 16.14 euros.
Across in Frankfurt, German chemicals giant Henkel said on Wednesday that net profit in the second quarter had leapt nearly four-fold owing to exceptional items in the figure 12 months earlier.
The maker of Persil washing powder revealed that profit surged to 143 million euros (206 million dollars), whereas the 2008 second quarter figure had been hit by charges linked to a restructuring plan. The group’s share price rallied 6.35 percent to 27.13 euros.
Meanwhile, German sports equipment group Adidas posted a 93-percent drop in second-quarter profit which swamped losses elsewhere in the country’s retail sector.
Adidas said net profit in the three months from April to June dropped to nine million euros (13 million dollars) from 116 million in the same period one year earlier.
But the result was better than a forecast loss of 2.2 million euros by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.
Adidas stock was 6.47 percent higher at 32.4 euros.
Back in London, loss-making airline British Airways jumped 7.45 percent to 161.4 pence on hope of an end to the worldwide slump in air travel.
“British Airways (has been) given a much needed boost by US-based airlines figures, suggesting that possibly the worst of the aviation travel slump is over,” said IG Index trader Philip Gillet.
US stocks had ended with slim gains Tuesday in choppy trade as strong underlying momentum limited profit taking and kept Wall Street’s sizzling summer rally on track.
The modest rise kept a three-week uptrend intact and pushed the main indexes to fresh 2009 highs.
The broad-market Standard & Poor’s 500 managed a gain of 0.30 percent to 1,005.65 after topping 1,000 on Monday for the first time since November 4.
In Asia on Wednesday, Tokyo share prices shed 1.18 percent as investors took profits a day after the market touched a 10-month high on mounting hopes of an economic recovery.

SINGAPORE: Oil advanced further in Asian trade Monday, still cheered on by data showing the US economy contracted at a slower-than-expected pace in the second quarter, analysts said.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, rose 17 cents to 69.62 dollars a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for September delivery advanced 48 cents to 72.18 dollars.
Both contracts had closed higher Friday, buoyed by data from the Commerce Department that showed the US economy shrank at an annualised rate of 1.0 percent in the three months to June.
That was less than the 1.5 percent contraction that most analysts had expected, renewing hopes that the world’s biggest economy was likely recovering from a recession that began in December 2007.
The United States is the world’s number one energy user and any improvement in its economy is seen as a boost to oil demand which in turn lends support to crude futures prices.
Top US administration officials said Sunday that economic growth was highly likely to resume in the second half of the year and that President Barack Obama’s massive 787-billion-dollar stimulus plan was working.
“A very great likelihood, and this is what most professional forecasters say, is that we’ll see growth going forward in the second half of this year,” White House economic adviser Larry Summers said in an interview with NBC television.
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told on Sunday that the worst US financial crisis in half a century was “not quite” over, “but we’re getting there.”
Greenspan said he was “pretty sure” the broader US economy had hit the bottom and begun to turn around in mid-July.
Analysts said the release of US non-farm payroll numbers and manufacturing data, due out later Monday, were the key items being watched by investors.
“Looking ahead, August will rely more on economic data to support risk appetite in equities and currencies as the corporate earnings season winds down,” analysts from Singapore’s DBS Bank said in a report.

Japan: Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn drove quietly out of the Japanese automaker’s soon-to-open headquarters Sunday in the first public viewing of its new zero-emission vehicle.It was the first time the external design was shown of Nissan Motor Co.’s environmentally friendly electric automobile, set to go on sale in Japan, the U.S. and Europe next year. The blue hatchback had a sporty design and a recharging opening in the front.
Designer Shiro Nakamura said the vehicle was designed to avoid a stereotypical futuristic design.
“This is not a niche car,” he said. “We didn’t make it unusual looking. It had to be a real car.”
Nissan has promised that the Leaf, which goes into mass-production as a global model in 2012, will be about the same price as a gas-engine car such as the 1.5 million yen ($15,000) Tiida, which sells abroad as the Versa, starting at about $10,000.
Ghosn drove out on stage with former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sitting next to him, and with a Yokohama governor and mayor in the rear seats.
“This car represents a real breakthrough,” Ghosn told reporters and guests at a showroom in the new headquarters.
He said the new car and new office building in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, marked two fresh starts for Nissan, which hopes to take the lead in zero-emission vehicles.
Nissan, which has an alliance with Renault SA of France, has fallen behind Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in gas-electric hybrids that have become increasingly popular recently.
Nissan said the new 22-story headquarters was designed to be sufficiantly energy efficient to qualify as one of the most ecological buildings in Japan. The company, which is losing money amid the global downturn, is selling its old Tokyo headquarters as part of efforts to cut costs.
Koizumi said environmentally friendly auto technology is key to Japan’s economic growth.
“It was so unexpectedly smooth and quiet,” he said after getting out of the car. “I am sure this car is going to be popular.”

Honda Recall , A few recalls have been announced recently that affect the BMW X5 and X6, Honda Accord and Civic, Subaru Baja, and Volkswagen Touareg models. If your vehicle is listed here, the manufacturer will contact you with information about what to do, or you can use one of the numbers we list below to contact the manufacturer yourself.Honda Recall2009 BMW X5/X6BMW is recalling all 2009 X5 and X6 vehicles because the rear brake discs may not have been made according to proper specs. The problem can result in reduced braking performance and larger stopping distances, which could increase the risk of a crash.
The manufacturer has not yet announced a remedy or notification schedule. Owners can contact BMW at 1-800-831-1117.
2001 Honda Accord and CivicHonda is recalling all 2001 Accord and Civic vehicles due to a problem with the airbag inflator, which could produce excessive internal pressure and may cause it to rupture when deployed. Metal pieces could go through the airbag and cause injury.
Dealers will replace the airbag inflator free of charge. Owners can call Honda at 1-800-999-1009.
2005-2006 Subaru BajaSubaru is recalling over 15,000 Baja pickups due to a cracking problem with the fuel hose connection on the outlet pressure side of the fuel pump. Fuel could leak from the hose connection and cause a fire.
Dealers will replace the fuel pump bracket free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in September. Owners may contact Subaru at 1-800-782-2783.
2007-2009 Volkswagen TouaregVolkswagen is recalling over 14,000 Touareg SUVs due to a problem with fasteners on the roof edge spoiler. The struts could crack and possibly cause the spoiler to become loose and detach from the vehicle. This could result in a crash or injury to people outside the vehicle.

LONDON: British Airways says it will stop its in flight meal service for short-haul economy passengers in an attempt to save the debt laden airline 22 million pounds ($NZ5 million).Analysts say BA is the most vulnerable among major European airlines to a prolonged industry downturn and, in spite of a near-$1 billion fund raising; it is fighting to cut costs.
BA said it was scrapping the sandwich or full meal served on short-haul flights of less than two and a half hours, but would continue to serve complimentary snacks and drinks.
Passengers will not be able to buy food onboard, a system used by budget airlines.
The airline said customers would still differentiate it from budget carriers.
The airline, which employs around 40,000 people, said on certain routes the meal service had around 30 percent wastage.