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The council of advisers’ purchase committee on Tuesday approved a power division proposal to award contracts to two private companies for the installation of two rental plants with a total capacity of 90MW.
   The committee, headed by the finance adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, however, set two conditions that the agreements would need to include the issues of fuel efficiency of the power plant and a cap on the scalable portion of the power price.
   The division placed the proposal to award a contract to the Youth Spinning Mills to set up an 80MW plant at Shahjibazar on a build-own-operate scheme and to the joint venture of the Desh Energy and the Cambridge Energy Waste Management Limited for the installation of a 10MW plant at Kumargaon.
   The committee approved the price offers of the companies for the installation of the plants.
   The Power Development Board has recently selected the Youth Spinning Mills and the Desh Energy to set up the proposed plants with offers of Tk 2.26 and Tk 2.36 for a unit of electricity respectively.
   The board will buy power for 15 years from the plants that will start operation by 2008. The companies will set up readymade second hand power plants.
   Sources attending the committee meeting said some of the members wanted to know from the power division officials whether they had any criteria of the fuel efficiency of the plants or how much gas the plants could consume.
   As the power plants will be second hand, they are likely to consume more gas to generate power, the committee observed.
   It also wanted to know whether the power price, which would vary in the case of increase in gas price or import of spare parts, would have any cap.
   As the power officials said such issues were not included, the committee asked the power division to include the issues in the agreements with the selected companies.
   The previous BNP-led, four-party government initially took initiatives to set up seven rental power plants with 260MW capacity on an emergency basis to tackle power crisis, but the interim government re-tendered six power plants scrapping earlier tender procedure and gave go-ahead to a 20MW plant at Bogra.
   The power division, however, suspended the tender procedure of three power plants for lack of gas at the plant sites and approved setting up two power plants at Shahjibazar and Kumargaon. The power board will re-tender for the 50MW plant at Fenchuganj.

The Gobrakura Land Port Exporters and Importers’ Association in Mymensingh has protested at the decision of taking Koroitali Land Port at Haluaghat under development programme Build, Operate and Transfer.
   The leaders of the association at a press conference in Mymensingh Press Club on Sunday also demanded that the Gobrakura Land Port should be taken under the development programme instead of the Koroitali port.
   The leaders also said that the National Board of Revenue had made a provision to establish the land port ‘Haluaghat-Gobrakura (in Bangladesh)-Gachhuapara (in India)’ in 1989 for exports and imports. But a vested quarter set up the land port at Koroitali instead of Gubrakura, they alleged.
   Ali Azgar, former upazila chairman of Haluaghat, also secretary of GLPEIA, read out a written statement at the press conference.
   Former lawmaker Promod Mankin, president, Abu Abdullah Hossain Khan, vice-president, and members of the association, were present at the press briefing.

The three local bidders for Tk 400 crore sponsor shares of Oriental Bank will inspect the financial and physical condition of the bank for 15 days from Sunday, Bangladesh Bank sources said.
   Three local and three foreign companies have shown interest to buy the sponsor shares of the beleaguered bank. The local potential investors are Summit Group, BRAC Bank and Domestic Investors Consortium of Bangladesh and the foreign ones are a Malaysian financial group, the Sri Lanka-based Hatton National Bank, and the UK-based East Invest Private Equity Limited, a BB official said.
   Oriental Bank has been asked to set up three data centres where the local bidders will examine various financial statements and physically inspect the assets of the bank, he said, adding the foreign bidders would do the same examinations from October 22, also for 15 days.
   The companies will be given three weeks time to make their final financial offers, the central bank official said. ‘We expect the bank can be handed over by the end of this year.’
   If the offer exceeds Tk 400 crore, the additional amount will be considered as premium.
   Local and foreign investors are likely to buy the shares at a premium as the central bank is not going to issue licence for a new bank, said the BB official.
   The bank will also issue shares to depositors proportionately, said another high official of the central bank.
   Depositors with Tk 1 crore and more will get shares of 25 per cent of their deposits, those with Tk 50 lakh to Tk 1 crore will get 20 per cent, and those with Tk 50 lakh to Tk 10 lakh will get 10 per cent, while those with less than Tk 10 lakh deposits will get shares for 10 per cent of the deposits but it will be optional, he said.
   General depositors have around Tk 1,150 crore with the bank, the government Tk 400 crore, private banks Tk 350 crore, financial institutions Tk 90 crore, insurance companies Tk 16 crore, and various local authorities Tk 7 crore.

Bakers across the country are passing through hard times as prices of raw materials of bakery items have increased up to 63 per cent in last six months, throwing many of them out of the business.
   The industry people said unusual increase in prices of raw materials of bakery products had hit hard thousands of small and medium sized bakeries in the capital as well as other cities and towns of the country.
   ‘At least one in every five backers across the country has closed his bakery unit in last six months as prices of main raw-materials — flour and edible oil — have increased abnormally during the period,’ said Abdul Quayum, a leader of Bangladesh Bread, Biscuit and Confectionary Manufacturers Association.
   A report of the commerce ministry released on Tuesday showed that non-packed flour was selling at Tk 32-33 per kilogram, the price increased by 62.5 per cent over a year while non-packed palm oil at Tk 74-75 a kilogram, increased by over 52 per cent.
   ‘Small bakers at the beginning price hike tried to survive by rationally increasing the price of their products but continuous increase in the prices of main raw-materials forced many of them to shut down their business,’ said Quayum
   According to the association, the number of small and medium sized bakeries across the country is over 50,000 and around one million people were employed in making items and distribution channels.
   Industry sources told New Age that the association moved to concerned ministries for providing with financial supports to the backers who comprises a significant segment of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of the country.
   The association people said they are also moving further demanding soft loans and supply of raw-materials by the government at subsidised rates for running their bakery units.
   ‘Government can arrange import of wheat and edible oil for supplying to small backers at subsidised rates,’ said MA Hannan Mia, owner of a bread manufacturing units in the city and a member of the executive committee of the association.
   Leaders of the association strongly argued that government should look into their problems as their enterprises belong to SME sector, the top priority sector of the government.

The third confidence-building conference for chamber leaders and businessmen of 10 districts under greater Rangpur, Dinajpur and Bogra districts will be held in Bogra today.
   Commerce secretary Feroz Ahmed will open the conference in the conference room of the district administration, official sources said.
   The GOC of the local Army, senior civil and military officials, and representatives from other government departments, including Bangladesh Bank, NBR and Export Promotion Bureau, will take part in the conference.
   The government has taken the initiative to hold the confidence-building meetings with the business community to dispel fear and encourage them to invest in new businesses and industries.
   The initiative has come in the backdrop of the government anti-corruption move to punish dishonest businessmen holding black money or engaging in irregular businesses.
   True to its commitment, the government recently circulated instructions to all banks to remove impediments to bank account operations of business firms in trouble following the arrest of their owners on corruption charges. It has also asked the banks to provide loans for them to keep their firms running and make

Stocks ended Tuesday buoyant on buying spree of heavyweight financial, and mutual fund and investment stocks, said stock market operators.
   The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange gained 20.49 points or 0.78 per cent to close at 2647.51, its highest ever mark.
   Blue chips index, DSE20, advanced by 11.04 points or 0.55 per cent to close at 2032.29.
   Chittagong Stock Exchange’s selective categories index gained 41.02 points or 0.96 per cent to close at 4319.82, while its blue chips index, CSE30, advanced by 83.57 points or 1.41 per cent to close at 5996.06.
   Trust Bank, which made its debut on Monday, gained significantly for the second day. Share price of the bank advanced by 7.65 per cent to close at Tk 914.25 at the DSE on Tuesday.
   Stock market operators said buying spree from the investors pushed up the share prices. Institutional investors played an active role, they said.
   Of the total 201 issues traded at the DSE, 116 advanced, 69 declined and 16 remained unchanged and out of total 118 issues traded at the CSE, 78 advanced, 35 declined and five remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the DSE, however, decreased to Tk 209.64 crore from the Monday’s Tk 233.97 crore while the CSE turnover increased marginally to Tk 29.66 crore from Tk 29.35 crore.
   Trust Bank retained the top turnover leader position at the DSE with total transaction of Tk 29.30 crore. On Monday, the bank topped the turnover leaders with total transaction of Tk 82.45 crore, a record turnover for an issue on the debut trading day in the history of the bourse.
   On Tuesday, other turnover leaders at the prime bourse were AB Bank, BRAC Bank, Aims 1st Mutual Fund, Summit Power, Grameen Mutual Fund One, Heidelberg Cement, United Commercial Bank, LankaBangla Finance and ACI.

India’s leading corporate house Tata Group is looking to expand its presence in the United Kingdom through inorganic growth route, including in new areas such as leather footwear, after its successful takeover of steel giant Corus earlier this year.
   The group has also embarked upon a brand-building exercise in the country, which it considers as the gateway to doing business in Europe as well as rest of the world outside India. It has appointed financial public relations firm Financial Dynamics for augmenting this exercise, the group’s UK-based subsidiary Tata Ltd’s managing director SA Hasan told a group of visiting reporters in London.
   FD is a leading international business and financial communications consultancy firm and is known for providing services aimed at maximising shareholder value, enhancing and protecting a company’s reputation and brand value.
   ‘The Jaguar Land Rover deal is already in the offing in the automotive sector... We also see value proposition in a potential acquisition in the leather footwear segment in the UK. Besides, we could also look at possible inorganic growth opportunities in sectors we are already present as well as the new areas,’ Hasan said.

A crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in ASEAN member Myanmar does not threaten to derail talks between the Asian bloc and the EU over a new free-trade pact, a European Commission spokesman said Tuesday.
   ‘The situation in Burma should not in any way contaminate the talks we are having with the other ASEAN members,’ Commission spokesman for trade issues Peter Power told AFP.
   ‘It’s quite clear that we will not conclude an agreement with Burma so long as the current regime remains in power,’ he added.
   The 27-nation European Union launched free-trade talks with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations earlier this year and the discussions are not expected to be wrapped up before at least another year.
   Power explained that because ASEAN countries did not have common import tariffs the EU would in effect have to negotiate individually with each country and therefore Myanmar could be left out of an agreement.
   Earlier Tuesday, British member of the European Parliament Glyn Ford said in Singapore that the crackdown in Myanmar had made it impossible for the EU to sign any free trade agreement that included military-run Myanmar.
   The junta’s move to quell the protests, which were led by Buddhist monks, killed at least 13 people and led to hundreds of arrests over the past week.
   An ASEAN-EU free-trade zone would cover nearly one billion people and be one of the world’s largest. Two-way trade totalled 137 billion dollars in 2005.
   Prior to the junta’s crackdown, the US and European nations already had tough economic sanctions in place, banning most investment and trade with Myanmar.
   After the crackdown began, the EU said it would reinforce those sanctions.
   The European Commission holds authority for negotiating trade agreements on behalf of the EU’s 27 members.

US financial giant Citigroup will take full control of its Japanese subsidiary Nikko Cordial, paying about 530 billion yen ($4.6b) in stock, the two firms said Tuesday.
   Nikko Cordial, Japan’s third largest brokerage firm, will be delisted after the share swap, which is expected to be completed in January, they said.
   The agreement was signed Tuesday after the boards of the two companies gave their approval.
   Citigroup already holds a stake of about 68 percent in Nikko Cordial after succeeding in a massive takeover offer in April for its Japanese partner, which was reeling from a fraud scandal.
   Citigroup also announced that it has filed an application to list its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
   The US financial giant is betting that it can succeed where rivals such as Merrill Lynch have failed with a big expansion in Japan, which is finally emerging from an economic slump stretching back more than a decade.
   Nikko Cordial said the share swap would strengthen the alliance and ‘create one of Japan’s leading comprehensive financial services groups.’

China’s net overseas investment hit 21.16 billion dollars in 2006, marking an annual average growth rate of 60 per cent over the past five years, according to a newly-issued government statistical gazette.
   The gazette quoted an expert from the National Bureau of Statistics as saying that overseas investment by Chinese enterprises has developed from setting up offices and opening ‘window’ branches to building factories, purchasing and acquisition, equity swapping, listing on overseas stock markets and establishing strategic cooperation, among others.
   A prominent feature of overseas investment is the increasing case of purchasing and acquisition, which accounted for some 40 per cent of total overseas investment in 2006.
   Major acquisition cases include the acquisition of South African mines and British mining companies by China’s Zijin Kuangye, Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s PC business, CITIC Group’s acquisition of Kazakhstan oil fields, and China Mobile’s acquisition of Pakistan telecommunications company, among others.
   Feng He, a researcher with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said that major reasons behind the overseas acquisition were: domestic enterprises’ continuous search for developing room overseas; loosening of the state control over overseas investment; and recognition of overseas mergers and acquisition as a means to become globalised.
   Vice-minister of commerce Wei Jianguo said that China would actively explore international acquisition and other investment patterns to acquire famous brands, advanced management experiences and marketing network, and would gradually foster its own international giant companies.

Iran has slashed the use of the dollar in payment for its oil exports to 15 per cent, an official said on Tuesday, amid growing pressure from arch-foe the United States on its financial system.
   The vast majority of transactions for oil from OPEC’s number two producer are now being carried out in euros, said Mohammad-Ali Khatibi, deputy head of the National Iranian Oil Company in charge of marketing.
   ‘Iran is selling about 85 per cent of its oil in the non-dollar currencies,’ Khatibi was quoted as saying by state television.
   ‘Currently, about 65 per cent of the oil sale income is in euros and 20 per cent in yen,’ Khatibi added.
   Japan, which purchases 20 per cent of Iran’s crude oil, has recently agreed to pay for the crude oil in yen, he said.
   He also said that the remaining sums being paid in dollars, about 15 per cent, are going to shift to ‘other creditworthy currencies’.
   Khatibi also cited the United Arab Emirates dirham as one other possible currency for use in oil transactions.
   He said the main reason for the move was fluctuations of the dollar on the currency markets and the depreciation of its value since 2004.
   Iran had previously announced that 60 per cent of its oil transactions for export had been switched into euros.
   Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, has massively cut down its dependence on the dollar in the face of US pressures.
   The United States has been seeking to make international banking transactions harder for Iran, as another tool to pressure Tehran into backing down over its controversial nuclear programme.
   Several European banks have drastically cut business with Iran as a result of US pressure.
   However despite problems with inflation and unemployment at home, Iran’s economy is being helped by revenue windfalls from current high crude oil prices.
   Iran’s foreign currency reserves held in banks abroad have risen by 37 per cent over the past year to the equivalent of 65 billion dollars as of the end of June 2007, the central bank said in September.

Japan’s free trade pact with Thailand will take effect on November 1, tearing down most tariffs between the two trading partners, the government said Tuesday.
   The controversial deal was inked in April after months of uncertainty due to Japan’s uneasiness over the military coup and street protests in Bangkok.
   Official documents on the deal were exchanged in Tokyo on Tuesday, clearing the way for a deal that ‘will invigorate the economies of Japan and Thailand and make bilateral relations closer through the strengthening of economic partnerships in various fields,’ the foreign ministry said in a statement.
   Under the agreement, about 97 per cent of Japanese exports to Thailand and 92 per cent of Thai exports to Japan will be tariff-free within 10 years.
   Activists in Thailand have also expressed fears that the free-trade deal will turn their country into a dumping ground for Japan’s toxic waste.
   Japan, Thailand’s largest investor, will scrap tariffs on Thai shrimp and tropical fruit such as mangoes and durian, although it will keep protecting Japan’s politically powerful rice farmers.
   Thailand will cut tariffs on automobiles with engines of 3000cc or larger to 60 per cent from 80 per cent over four years and eventually scrap all tariffs on steel imports.
   Thailand has become a major construction hub for Japanese automakers.
   For its part Japan, the world’s second largest economy, has been seeking a growing number of bilateral free-trade deals amid the breakdown in global liberalisation talks.

Philippine lawmakers are unlikely to ratify a free trade agreement with Japan in the deal’s present form, the president of the Southeast Asian nation’s Senate said Tuesday.
   Officials have been unable to convince the legislators that the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement would be beneficial to the Philippines, said Manuel Villar.
   The agreement, signed in September last year, would remove import tariffs on more than 90 per cent of goods traded between the two Asian countries and open the largely closed Japanese labour market to Filipino health workers.
   But the Philippine Senate must ratify the agreement for it to become effective, which legislators have yet to do amid claims that the deal favours Japan.
   President Gloria Arroyo has described the agreement as an economic priority.
   ‘Personally I’m not impressed with the so-called economic benefits,’ Villar, seen as a likely candidate in the May 2010 presidential election, told reporters.
   Nevertheless, he said he had an open mind and could still be convinced of the deal’s merits, although he favours the renegotiation of the agreement.
   Environmental groups have campaigned against the treaty allegedly because it would allow Tokyo to dump hazardous waste in the Philippines disguised as exports.
   Villar said the activists ‘are better at presenting their case.’
   The free trade agreement is one of a raft of bilateral or regional deals being negotiated or signed by Asian countries amid a breakdown in the Doha round of the World Trade Organisation trade talks. Apart from his reservations over the trade deal with Japan, Villar said he thought the Philippines was ‘doing well’ economically.
   ‘We know we’re on the verge of a takeoff,’ he said, adding an Asian boom rather than Arroyo’s leadership was mostly responsible for that.

Annual inflation in the 30 industrialised members of the OECD fell to 1.8 per cent in the year to August from 2.0 per cent in July 2006, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday.
   The consumer price level was down 0.1 per cent in August after registering no change in July.
   The report came two days ahead of meetings of policymakers at the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. The ECB is widely expected to maintain benchmark interest rates at current levels as signs of a slowdown in the 13-nation eurozone emerge.
   In the United States the Federal Reserve last month cut its base target rate by half a point in a bid to galvanise momentum in the US economy.
   Traditionally a rise in inflation would encourage central banks to tighten their monetary polices by raising interest rates.
   But in the OECD area, consumer prices for energy fell 1.3 per cent in annual terms in August compared with a rise of 0.8 per cent in July. Food prices gained 3.2 per cent year-on-year in August after a rise of 3.3 per cent in July.
   Excluding food and energy consumer prices rose 2.0 per cent in the year to August, unchanged from July 2007.
   In the eurozone consumer prices were up 1.7 per cent in August in annual terms, after 1.8 per cent in the 12 months to July, and rose 0.1 per cent from July to August, according to the OECD.
   Consumer prices in the United States gained 2.0 per cent in August after 2.4 per cent in the year to July.
   In Japan, prices were
   down by 0.2 per cent in August compared with a year earlier after no change in the 12 months to July.

New IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Monday that Europe and Russia will have to give up some of their clout at the Fund as part of a much-needed reform of the top lending institution.
   Strauss-Kahn, 58, also said trimming costs at the International Monetary Fund was an issue ‘that is on the table for discussion,’ including selling off part of the IMF’s gold reserves to help ease the Fund’s financial situation.
   The former French finance minister, who was appointed on Friday as IMF managing director, is to take over from Spaniard Rodrigo Rato on November 1 after pledging to bring change to the IMF.
   ‘To allow some countries to be better represented, other countries will have to give up part of their share of voting rights,’ said Strauss-Kahn, referring to European countries and Russia.
   He argued that it would be unrealistic to expect the United States, which is the largest single shareholder, to be the only country to give up voting rights.
   ‘There will be no other way of finding a solution’ unless Europe and Russia ‘transfer some of their voting rights to other countries,’ he said.
   Strauss-Kahn also said the crisis in the US ‘sub-prime’ loan sector should not have a dramatic impact on growth in the world economy.
   ‘The bases of world growth today are solid bases,’ he told the news conference.
   ‘I think the situation is now under control,’ he said, although he cautioned that the crisis was not yet ‘solved.’
   In an interview to Le Monde newspaper, Strauss-Kahn also attacked the longstanding arrangement that allows Washington to name the head of the World Bank and Europe to place its candidate at the top of the IMF.
   ‘A candidate from any one of the 185 members states must be able to direct the Fund if he has the competency,’ he said.
   Strauss-Kahn, known in France by his initials DSK, earlier met with President Nicolas Sarkozy who had backed the prominent left-winger’s candidacy for the post.
   The IMF, created in 1944, is seeking to redefine its role in a globalising world reshaped by the rising economic clout of developing countries like China, India and Brazil.
   Strauss-Kahn has pledged to implement reforms of the institution, which bails out countries in crisis but faces its own crisis of relevancy and legitimacy in a world flush with cash and access to capital.

The Mercantile Bank Limited recently signed an agreement with Al-Ahalia Money Exchange Bureau in the UAE.
   Under the agreement, Bangladeshi expatriates will now be able to remit their money home from the UAE easily and quickly.
   AKM Shahidul Haque, additional managing director of Mercantile Bank, and VS Thampi, general manager of Al-Ahalia Money Exchange, UAE signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations, said a press release.
   Md Nurul Haque Gazi, first vice-president and head of remittance of Mercantile
   Bank, and Bimal KH., manager, correspondent banking of Al-Ahalia Money Exchange, were also present at the signing
   function.

Syed Gias Hussain, deputy managing director of the APEX Adelchi Footwear Ltd, opens an outlet of the Gallerie APEX on airport road at Banani in the city at a function held recently. Abdullah Al-Mosaddeque, deputy general manager of the company, was also present along with the other senior officials and local elite.

Nigeria’s foreign currency reserves rose to 46.7 billion dollars in September 2007 from 45.5 billion dollars in the preceding month, the Central Bank of Nigeria said Tuesday.
   The CBN said the reserves could finance 20 months of imports. It said the reserves rose because of the rising price of crude on world energy markets. A barrel of crude climbed to 80.86 dollars during the period.
   The CBN said the reserves level, which hit 45 billion dollars in 2005, dropped to 32 billion dollars after Nigeria paid 12.4 billion dollars in debt owed to governments in the Paris Club of creditors.
   It said reserves began to build from April 2006, when the total came to 37 billion dollars. The total then went to 41.95 billion in December 2006 and to 42.65 billion in the first weeks of 2007.
   The Paris Club in 2005 cancelled 18 billion dollars of Nigeria’s debt, leaving a total of 12.4 billion dollars, including arrears and interest.
   Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, exporting a daily output of 2.14 million barrels and deriving around 95 per cent of its foreign earnings from the sector.

The first new oil well in the Philippines in 15 years is expected to start production in March, 2008, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said Tuesday.
   The oil well, located in the Galoc Field off the western island of Palawan, will increase the country’s monthly oil production from about 17,000 barrels to about 500,000 barrels, Reyes said.
   The project costing 86.4 million dollars, was led by Singapore-based Galoc Production Company and its partners Australian firm, Nido Petroleum, and local firms.
   The development of the oil well is part of the Energy Department’s intensive search for indigenous energy sources aimed at ensuring energy security, said Reyes.
   Drilling for the well has been completed and the company is just waiting to install the equipment, said Kay Palma, country representative of GPC.

A new currency is to be unveiled in Zimbabwe by year end in a fresh bid to rein in galloping inflation, the central bank chief said on Monday.
   ‘It is over a year since we launched Operation Sunrise One which saw the slashing of three zeros’ off the country’s currency, Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono said in his mid-term monetary policy review statement.
   ‘Speculation and expectation have been high about when Operation Sunrise Two is coming. Indeed, I can confirm that Sunrise Two is coming and it is coming very soon.’
   He warned businesses and individuals from keeping huge sums of money saying that they would risk losing their money as the central bank will impose strict deposit thresholds during the changeover to the new currency.
   Gono said the new currency to replace the current series of bearer cheques which have a short lifespan would be introduced before the end of the year.

The dollar continued to recover on Tuesday from its record low against the euro ahead of fresh US data and European interest rate decisions later this week, dealers said.
   The euro slid to 1.4182 dollars in European deals, compared with 1.4231 dollars in New York late on Monday, when it had hit a record high 1.4283 dollars.
   The US currency meanwhile eased to 115.64 yen, from 115.71 yen late in New York on Monday.
   Later Tuesday, the foreign exchange market will digest US pending home sales for August.
   ‘Added to the drop in existing and new home sales, this could give further indication of the slowdown in the US housing market, adding yet another bad egg to the basket of US housing,’ cautioned ABN Amro analyst Greg Gibbs.
   Dealers will be looking for clues about the outlook for the US economy and the Federal Reserve’s next policy move at its meeting later this month.
   The Fed slashed its fed funds rate 50 basis points to 4.75 per cent last month and investors expect further cuts if economic data turns out to be poor, dealers said.
   Investors also awaited monetary policy decisions from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England on Thursday. The ECB is widely expected to hold rates at 4.00 per cent and the BoE is also forecast for no change from the current 5.75 per cent.
   The greenback, meanwhile, has garnered support from a strong performance on Monday by Wall Street, where the Dow Jones index hit a record closing high above 14,000 points as investors anticipated another cut to US rates.
   Investors were optimistic that the recent financial turbulence, linked to the troubled US subprime or high-risk home loan sector, appeared to have passed.
   ‘The strong investor confidence that is blaring from Wall Street should continue to underpin the yen-funded carry trade,’ said John Noonan, an analyst at Thomson IFR.
   Recent financial market volatility has dampened demand for such carry trades, which involve selling low-yielding currencies such as the yen to buy high-return currencies and assets elsewhere.
   Dealers are looking for signs of an increased appetite for risk, which would be likely to weigh on the yen.
   Financial markets have held their nerve in the face of heavy write-downs announced by banking giants Citigroup and UBS due to failed mortgage investments as more transparency had reduced fear of the unknown, dealers said.
   In early European trading on Tuesday, the euro was changing hands at 1.4182 dollars, against 1.4231 dollars late on Monday, 163.99 yen (164.70), 0.6960 pounds (0.6964) and 1.6642 Swiss francs (1.6626).
   The dollar stood at 115.64 yen (115.71) and 1.1732 Swiss francs (1.1682).
   The pound was being traded at 2.0382 dollars (2.0429).
   On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to 735.15 dollars per ounce at the morning fixing from 742.50 dollars late on Monday.

World oil prices weakened further on Tuesday, with New York crude under 80 dollars per barrel as traders feared slower American economic growth could dent future US crude demand.
   Prices had hit record high points at the end of September, but have since been pushed lower by easing weather concerns in the US Gulf of Mexico, where many energy facilities are based, analysts said.
   The price of London’s Brent North Sea crude for November delivery fell 77 cents to 76.87 dollars per barrel.
   New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude
   for delivery in November, shed 69 cents to 79.55 dollars per barrel.
   ‘Crude futures were still lower (on Tuesday), deepening last night’s losses amid profit-taking on lingering
   concerns over a slow down in the US economy, which could dent growth and eventually demand for energy,’ said Andrey Kryuchenkov, analyst at the Sucden brokerage.

Trading through CDBL
   Usmania Glass
   As per decision of the SEC, trading of the shares of the company will be held through the CDBL with effect from October 31, 2007. In this respect, trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the spot market on October 25 and trading of the shares will remain suspended during October 28 to 30 for finalization of demat process.
   
   Response to DSE query
   LankaBangla Finance
   In response to a DSE query, the company has informed that there is no undisclosed price sensitive information of the company for recent unusual price hike.
   
   Transaction
   National Tubes
   Trading of the shares of the company will be allowed only in the spot market and block/odd lot transactions will also be settled as per spot settlement cycle with cum benefit from October 3 to 7. Trading of the shares will remain suspended on record date on October 8.
   
   United Commercial Bank
   Aziz Al-Mahmood, one of the sponsors/directors of the bank, has further reported that he has completed his sale of 15,500 shares of the bank at prevailing market price through stock exchange as announced earlier.
   Source: DSE, CSE

KAFCO counts another good year
The 26th annual general meeting of KAFCO was held on Friday, where a continuously satisfactory and improved performance of the company was reported, said a press release. During the year under reference, the company earned a net profit after tax of $79.8 million, reflecting high fertiliser prices in the global market. For the government, this resulted in a revenue of over $60 million in terms of gas sales, corporate income tax of $22.8 million and 371,000 tonnes of urea. The government being the major shareholder received dividend of almost $32 million during the fiscal year ending July 31, 2007.
— New Age

APGI inks deal with CRAB
The Asia Pacific General Insurance Company Ltd has signed an agreement with the Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited recently. Under the agreement, CRAB will provide credit rating services to the Asia Pacific General Insurance. Masihur Rahman, CRAB managing director, and Shah Abul Kashem, Asia Pacific managing director, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations. Motiar Rahman, deputy managing director of the Asia Pacific General Insurance, Kh Mohd Hafizur Rahman, company secretary, HS Sohrawardhi, CRAB manager, and other senior officials from both the organisations were present at the signing ceremony.
— New Age

Hong Kong gold closes lower
Hong Kong gold prices closed lower Tuesday at 734.40-734.90 US dollars an ounce, down from Friday’s close of 737.50-738.00 US dollars an ounce. The gold market, which was closed on Monday for a public holiday, opened at 743.80-744.30 US dollars an ounce.
— AFP