Price Earning Ratio and Market to Book Ratio

This paper studies the effects of P/E ratio and M/B ratio on stock return of listed firms with Karachi Stock Exchange in the Textile sector of Pakistan. A total of 30 major firms out of 162 in the textile sector listed with the Karachi Stock Exchange for the period of 2001-2006 were selected on the basis of their size in terms of total assets. Firms which have larger size in terms of total assets among 162 firms were selected in this paper. The study reveals that the firms in an exclusive sector exhibit unique attributes that are sector specific and cannot be applied to or judged by combined analysis of the industry. The result shows that coefficients of independent variables are statistically insignificant. This means that stock return is not depending on any of the two independent variables. Besides insignificant coefficients, coefficients of determination are also very low in each case. This means that a very low percentage of change in stock return is explained by these two variables. The data was analyzed by running linear regression. Two independent variables i.e. P/E ratio and M/B ratio were selected to see their effects on stock return. Multiple regression models along with a measure of correlation were used to study the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The results for the study revealed that stock return is independent of the two independent variables studied in this paper.P/E Ratio, M/B Ratio, Stock Return, Fundamental Analysis

A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF “THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINERâ€

If a specimen of literary art is seen as a fine tapestry of words made by the skilled seamstress—the poet, then the lexis and structure of a language are the raw materials—the fabric and the thread—by weaving which into specific patterns the finished product is achieved. The choice of materials and their arrangement into unique patterns always bear an image of their creator, or the artist; thus, a close view of them reveals the artist’s identity and brings out the meaningful message that underlies the ornate running threads. Mostly, the students of literary studies cannot appreciate the beauty of the literary classics on their own. Consequently, they simply mimic the ideas, and sometimes even the words, of famous professional critics when asked to give their own critical judgment on the aesthetic merit or the thematic quality of a literary work in the shape of a home assignment, classroom presentation or an annual assessment test. Now, the researcher has got the inspiration for carrying out this study from an idea expounded in Widdowson (1975) that this mimicry can be replaced by genuine individual opinion if the students, or even those people who have non-academic concerns with literature, are brought to a standpoint from where they can have a closer view of the raw materials, the language resources, which are involved in the making of a literary product. And, if the product in its finished form cannot elicit a desired response from them then making them sensitive to the process of its making can be quite effective in this regard. Through the present study, an attempt has been made to show an easy access to the outlandish world of verse by means of the linguistic route which is laid with the familiar flagstones of grammar and vocabulary. Meaning thereby that in this study the elusiveness of poetry will be dealt with the precision of a social scientist, the linguist. The approach which serves as the basis of this study is not an invention of the researcher; rather, it is a well-known twentieth century approach known as stylistics (Jeffries McIntyre, 2010, p. 30). Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous ballad, “The Rime of the Ancient Marinerâ€, being a widely read poem and bearing various stylistics features, offered itself as an ideal object for this study. The poet’s aesthetic message is explored by analyzing the finest details of his linguistic expression. And, careful considerations have been made throughout the study to prevent the overlooking of any instance of deviant linguistic units or recurring patterns for interpretation because such elements contribute largely to the meaning of any literary product. The study is descriptive in its nature therefore qualitative data has been integrated with and substantiated by the quantitative one.  Keywords: stylistics, literature, lexical, semantic and graphological deviation

Facebook Effect on Enhancement of English Learners’ Writing Approach at University Level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Social Media plays a pivotal role in this modern technological era. Facebook is one of the most important tools of Social Media which is used by millions of users and most frequently visited web-site therefore, the present study was conducted to find out the effect of Facebook on enhancement of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing approach at university level. Main objectives of the study were to find out Facebook effect on EFL learners’ writing approach at university level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The second one was that to compare Facebook based English learners with those learners who use traditional methods for writing skills development, and similarly, to compare the learning competencies/ abilities of both Facebook users and those users who use traditional methods for writing skills improvement. The study was guided by the following null hypothesis: Ho1.The first null hypothesis shows that there is no significant difference between the Mean Scores of experimental and control group on pre-test.Ho2: The second null hypothesis shows that there is no significant difference between the  Mean Scores of experimental and control groups on post-test 3: The third one is that there is no significant difference between the Mean scores of those students who use Facebook for writing skill and those who use traditional methods for writing skill development. In order to achieve the desired objectives the researcher randomly selected 20 students for this experimental study as a respondent, and then divided them according to their age, academic achievement and their intellectual level. An equivalent writing test, developed by the researcher was applied on the control and the experimental groups before the study started to ensure their equivalence; and was also used as a post-test. The result of this study showed that Facebook Keywords: (Using Facebook, University level EFL learners, Enhancement of Writing skills

Geotechnical characteristics of effluent contaminated cohesive soils

In developing countries like Pakistan, raw industrial effluents are usually disposed-off directly into open lands or in water bodies resulting in soil contamination. Leachate formation due to rainfalls in openly dumped solid waste also adds to soil contamination. In this study, engineering behavior of soils contaminated by two industrial effluents, one from paper industry (acidic) and another from textile industry (basic), has been investigated. Laboratory testing revealed significant effects of effluent contamination on engineering behavior of tested soils. Liquid limit, plasticity index, optimum moisture content and compression index of tested soils were found to increase with effluent contaminant, indicating a deterioration in the engineering behavior of soils. Whereas maximum dry density, undrained shear strength and coefficient of consolidation of the contaminated soils showed a decreasing trend. The dilapidation in engineering characteristics of soils due to the addition of industrial effluents could pose serious threats to existing and future foundations in terms of loss of bearing capacity and increase in settlement. Keywords: soil contamination, industrial waste, engineering behavior, effluent waste, leachate. First published online: 28 Nov 201

Mediating Role of Environmental Management Accounting and Control System between Top Management Commitment and Environmental Performance: A Legitimacy Theory

The purpose of current study is to assess the impact of top management commitment on firms’ performance, based on legitimacy theory with mediating role of environmental management accounting and environmental management control system. Survey-based data has been collected through questionnaires from ISO 14001 based manufacturing firms of Pakistan. Path analysis has been conducted by applying structural equation modelling on total 304 respondents' data to answer the study hypotheses by using SPSS and AMOS. Results of the study indicate that there is a positive and direct impact of top management commitment on the firms' environmental performance. Moreover, environmental management accounting and control system significantly mediate the relationship between top management commitment and environmental performance. The theoretical model of this study is first time developed and tested by the researcher in Pakistan. Practically, the findings of this research give a deep insight and understanding of how the managers in Pakistan can improve the environmental performance of their firms, through commitment and environmental management accounting as well as environmental management control system tools

Organizational Productivity: A Critical Analysis of the Impact of Employee Motivation

Purpose: The main objective of this research was to examine the importance of training and development in the workplace. Methodology: Several dimensions of employee performance were analyzed, including productivity, job satisfaction, employee satisfaction, employee commitment, and decision-making. An adopted five Likert scale questionnaire was adopted for the online data collection from 100 respondents from the telecommunication industry. Convenience sampling was used for sampling and the PLS-SEM was the main technique for data analysis using smart PLS software. Findings: The results suggest that organizational performance and employee performance in the telecommunication sector in Pakistan increase if there is a significant relationship between employees and decision-making. Similarly, employees with a high level of job satisfaction and affective commitment will ultimately have a higher potential for productivity and career satisfaction. Conclusions: The study concluded that employee performance improves as teamwork increases. Teamwork within the company is very valuable; it directly affects the performance of employees. When an employee gets enough teamwork possibilities, his performance will automatically develop

Price Earning Ratio and Market to Book Ratio

This paper studies the effects of P/E ratio and M/B ratio on stock return of listed firms with Karachi Stock Exchange in the Textile sector of Pakistan. A total of 30 major firms out of 162 in the textile sector listed with the Karachi Stock Exchange for the period of 2001-2006 were selected on the basis of their size in terms of total assets. Firms which have larger size in terms of total assets among 162 firms were selected in this paper. The study reveals that the firms in an exclusive sector exhibit unique attributes that are sector specific and cannot be applied to or judged by combined analysis of the industry. The result shows that coefficients of independent variables are statistically insignificant. This means that stock return is not depending on any of the two independent variables. Besides insignificant coefficients, coefficients of determination are also very low in each case. This means that a very low percentage of change in stock return is explained by these two variables. The data was analyzed by running linear regression. Two independent variables i.e. P/E ratio and M/B ratio were selected to see their effects on stock return. Multiple regression models along with a measure of correlation were used to study the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The results for the study revealed that stock return is independent of the two independent variables studied in this paper

Non-Standardized Form of CAPM and Stock Returns

Abstract Emerging markets like Pakistan confront with the problem to validate the CAPM in its original form. Since standard form of this model has unrealistic assumptions, different non-standardized forms have been introduced by different researchers. This paper also introduces a non-standardized form of CAPM to validate whether it is applicable in Pakistan. The data of 20 companies of different sectors, covering the period of 2007 to 2008 were collected. One year KIBOR is taken in replacement of T-bill rates. Beta 3 is calculated using an equation to show the negative relationship between interest rate and market returns. The results of regression analysis reveal mixed results. For instance, mean return of companies in cement and chemical sector is linearly related to its beta risk while other sectors have volatile results