Comparative Perusal on the Financial Performance and Market Share Growth of Islamic and Conventional Banking- Pakistan’s Perspective

The mien of Banks is reset into financial intermediaries, developers and promoters. Thus banks act like a trustee body for the borrowers and the lenders. The axial aim of this study is to find out the extant status of financial performance of Islamic & Conventional banking in Pakistan in order to guide the stakeholders- shareholders, depositors, investors, regulatory institutes & other related organizations. To exhibit the true picture of the financial conduct of both extrusive entities the data has been extracted in the form of different financial ratios from the annual reports and financial statements for the period 2007-2011. This research paper probes the force of thirteen critical financial ratios accompanied with the major financial concerns like profitability, liquidity, risk, capital adequacy, earning ability, deployment, operational efficiency and solvency. The statistical testing tool used in this study consists of ‘co-efficient of variation’ analysis with an aim to find out the critical importance of the mean difference of the selected financial ratios. Keywords: Islamic banks, Conventional banks, Financial performance, Capital adequacy, Liquidity, Risk, Profitability, EPS, Market Shar

Profitability and Financial Leverage: A Study Based on Stitched and Unstitched Textile Sector of Pakistan

The major purpose that lies behind conducting this research remains to understand the volatility or consistency of the components of profitability including Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE) and Profit Margin (PM) in the Stitched and Unstitched Industry of Pakistan Textile Sector. The research method used serve the purpose of this study is Independent t-test using SPSS Software. The data considered for conducting this research is taken from the time period from 2012 to 2015, comprising of 44 companies falling in the Pakistan Textile Industry. The key aspect covered by this article remains to analyse the stitched and unstitched industries on the basis of the three profitability ratios and determine which of them are better with respect to their performance in the financial, investing and operating activities that would be identified with the help of ROA, ROE and PM. the results obtained from this study determine that the stitched industry is found with better ROA, ROE and PM as compared to the Unstitched industry. Keywords: Return On Asset (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Financial Leverage; Profit Margin, Stitched Textile Sector, Unstitched Textile Sector, profitability. DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/10-8-11 Publication date: April 30th 201

Effect of Fuel Prices on Automobile Sales in Pakistan

The main reason to select the topic effect of Fuel Prices on automobile sales in Pakistan is that due to the continuous increase in inflation in Pakistan which leads to less purchasing power no matter of what sector it is. With this topic, we have checked how much the Petrol prices affect the sales of the automobile industry in Pakistan. Automobile sales are the variable that has been selected here for the research. Since a long time, the industry of automotive has been a growing and active field in Pakistan. However, it is not very established that an obvious list of top automotive industries can be figured out regardless of production volumes, localization of vehicle components, as well as technology’s transfer, remains low. Majority of cars used in the country consist of both fuel options that are CNG as well as petrol. CNG have high affordability rate and is also less expensive than petrol which is considered as dependent variable. However, the cost of fuel is independent variable, i.e. 1,300 cc cars and 1,000 cc cars variable. The data of the monthly time series (secondary data) used from the period 2014 to 2018. To analyse the data, the regression technique has been applied. The conclusion of the analysis is that no automobile affects the production of automobiles due to the prices of gasoline. The cars are stable and even grow in a few years. This study is useful for the automotive industry to see the impact. Keywords: Fuel Prices, automobile sales, Pakistan fuel prices DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-9-08 Publication date:May 31st 201

Financial Leverage and Its Impact on Profit Margin in Pakistan’s Textile Industry

The core purpose concerned in this study remains to explore the impact of the financial leverage on the stitched textile industry, and mainly on the profit margin. The textile industry in Pakistan is said to be the largest manufacturing industry and so is the stitching industry increasing with the great importance of readymade dresses especially among females. The objective set in this study remains to study the relationship between the Financial Leverage (FL) and the Profit Margin (PM). This further includes the proving of the idea that the stitched industry becomes more profitable as soon as the financial leverage has been adopted by the companies. The data from 10 Stitched-Textile companies has been gathered as a sample in this study, from the period of 2012 to 2015 for data analysis. The tools used for data analysis comprised of descriptive analysis, correlation analysis,and regression analysis. The results from this analysis conclude that in the stitching industry there is no significance recognition but positive impact on the FL by the PM. Therefore, it is being recommended that the best possible use of the FL should be made by the stitched industry in order to achieve the target of becoming the most profitable industry of Pakistan Textile Industry. Furthermore, it could be noted that the optimum increase in the production of the textile industry would help in minimizing the level of poverty in Pakistan and also building a healthy population. Keywords: Financial Leverage; Profit Margin, Stitched-Textile Industry, profitability. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-12-13 Publication date: April 30th 201

The Impact of Inflation on Pakistan Stock Exchange

The aim of the study is to determine the impact of inflation on equity prices in Pakistan's economy. The examination time frame is 2012-2018; monthly information was gathered from the State Bank of Pakistan and the Pakistan Stock Exchange. The information was dissected utilizing the relapse model and factual consequences of these investigations to demonstrate a negative connection among expansion and stock costs. All exploration as of late has demonstrated that inflation and stock costs have a positive relationship universally. Some studies, however, indicated that inflation and equity prices were negative. In general, the stock market provides an overview of investors whether they want to invest in the financial market. Equity prices also affect inflation. Keywords Stock price, Inflation, Karachi Stock Exchange, KSE 100 index, CPI DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-16-11 Publication date:June 30th 201

Demographics Factors and Perception of Brand Consciousness: A Cross-Sectional Study of Basic Clothing Brands in Karachi Pakistan

The purpose of this study is to investigate the purchasing power of Pakistani consumers and to recognize the key elements of branding conditions that affect consumers' buying habits against the latest fashion items. The aim of the study is to identify the importance of clothing brands according to demographic factors, including gender, income, age, and education. We applieddescriptive analysis; chi-square and correlation test were used to analyze the collected sample size of 500 surveyed real-time shoppers selected through non-probability convenience sampling bases from 40 different malls and outlets which are selected through randomly. A research questionnaire was prepared to determine the demographic factors and branded clothes preferences that have an impact on Pakistani consumer’s choices.The study concluded that the demographic factor age hasa significant association with preferences of branded clothes. The demographic factors such as gender, income, and education have an insignificant association with preferences of branded clothes. The results revealed that more or less 50% respondent of all age groups agreed that brand is quite important while considering and purchasing clothes. Strong brand preferences of age group between 18-25(17%), followed by 36-45 (14%), 26-35 (13%), 46 years and above almost 10%. The correlation results concluded that the preferences of branded clothes significantly correlates with price and reference group whereas insignificantly relates with retailer efforts and promotional incentives.We further concluded that age is the vital demographic indicator for stitched garment marketers as well as reference group and price must be considered because both variables are positive and significant influences on branded clothes preferences according to our research findings. DOI: 10.7176/IKM/9-6-02 Publication date:June 30th 201

Consumer Demographics and Self-Medication: A Cross-Sectional Study of Karachi City in Pakistan

The purpose of this study is to find the statistical relationship between self-medication and demographic characteristics. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the local settings of Karachi. A total of 210 individuals participated in the study. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaire. SPSS.20 was used for data analysis. This software help in data management from above mentioned sources, and statistical analysis of the data. Chi-square and Phi and Cramer’s V test was used to measure attitude of consumer towards self medications. The study shows that 82% of the surveyed people practice self-medication, mostly for minor illnesses. The common reasons for self-medication as stated by the respondents are prior experience, convenience, and recommendation. The majority of the respondent regarded self-medication as an acceptable practice and a short-term cure to the illness. Finally, there is no statistical relationship between self-medication and demographic characteristics of the population. The sample size that has been taken is small. Thus it is possible that the results do not give the exact image of the population. Moreover, responses of the participants could be inaccurate, as participants may not have been able to correctly recall past events. Key    Words: Self-medication,        Over     the    Counter     medicines      (OTC),      Minor            illness, Prior  experience, Convenience. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-14-04 Publication date:May 31st 201

A Systematic Review in the World of the Metaverse

Metaverse uses “virtual reality” in e-commerce to create immersive virtual spaces. The philosophy behind it is to make people addicted to virtual 3d reality, and with the options of “teleportation, changing environment, and using cryptocurrency to shop,” this will be the ultimate future of technology. Apart from the benefits of the metaverse, it has many challenges, including “cyber security.” This study has synthesized past literature into nine themes based on a systematic review. All nine themes deal with the potential challenges and opportunities for users, including buyers and sellers. People can live an ideal life in the metaverse, leading to the denial mode of not accepting the real world and prefer living in the metaverse. For example, bald individuals can get a head full of hair in the metaverse. Someone with a disability can walk and fly in the metaverse. All these lucrative features will make virtual life more like heaven and real life like hell

Seismic vulnerability of reinforced concrete bridges in Pakistan

Different researchers have performed seismic hazard assessment studies for Pakistan using faults sources which differ from Building Code of Pakistan (BCP 2007) with diverse standard deviations. The results of seismic hazard studies indicate that BCP requires gross revision considering micro and macro level investigations. The recent earthquakes in Pakistan also damaged bridge structures and some studies have been conducted by different researchers to investigate capacity of existing bridges.The most of bridge stock in Pakistan has been designed assuming seismic loads as 2%, 4% and 6% of dead loads following West Pakistan Code of Practice for Highway Bridges. The capacity of eight selected real bridges, two from each seismic zone 2A, 2B, 3 & 4 is checked against BCP demands. Static and dynamic analyses were performed and the piers were checked for elastic limits. It is established that piers are on lower side in capacity and the bridges in zone 2A are generally less vulnerable. Whereas the bridges in zone 2B, 3 and 4 are vulnerable from medium to very high level. Hence, an in-depth analytical vulnerability study of bridge stock particularly in high-risk zone needs to be conducted on priority and appropriate seismic retrofitting schemes need to be proposed

Stress–Strain Model for Low-Strength Concrete in Uni-Axial Compression

© 2014, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. One of the most significant problems found in non-engineered reinforced concrete structures is poor quality concrete and can lead to brittle failure modes even for small magnitude earthquakes. The statistics of different post-earthquake surveys indicate that the reinforced concrete building stock in developing countries can have a broad range of low-strength concrete, which can vary between 4 and 20 MPa. The lack of information regarding low-strength concrete mechanical characteristics necessitates a study on low-strength concrete and the development of appropriate stress–strain models to realistically simulate the inelastic behaviour of non-engineered structures. This paper presents the methods adopted to produce low-strength concrete in the laboratory. The stress–strain results obtained from compression tests on cylindrical concrete specimens are presented and new expressions for the modulus of elasticity, peak strain and failure strain are developed, which are used in the development of a stress–strain model for low-strength concrete