Morning Market Brief 12th Mar. 2021

Technical Overview

The Benchmark KSE100 index have penetrated below its major supportive region during last trading session and now these supportive regions would react as strong resistances on its path towards recovery. Index have succeeded in sliding below its 50% correction level of last bullish rally therefore uncertainty is increasing day by day. Overall a volatile session would be witnessed during current trading session. Currently index have major supportive region ahead at 42,450pts where its being supported by a descending trend line on daily and weekly charts while breakout below this region would call for 42,000pts where 61.8% correction of last bullish rally would complete and breakout below 42,000pts would call for 41,800pts where a strong horizontal supportive region would try to support index against current bearish sentiment. But it's recommended to stay cautious because daily stochastic have succeeded in sliding below 20 level and if index would not succeed in starting recovery before breakout below 41,800pts then few sharp and longer bearish candles would be witnessed in coming days. While on flip side in case of recovery now previously supportive regions would react as strong resistances and initially index would face resistance from 43,500pts and in case of breakout above this region it would be capped by a strong resistant trend line which was previously supportive trend line of an ascending wedge at 44,000pts. Daily and weekly MACD have changed their directions towards bearish side which is a negative element and this may add pressure on index for short term basis.

Regional Markets

Asian stocks set for gains as bond yields dip

Asian stocks were set for a strong start on Friday, following firm overnight leads from Wall Street and Europe as a further retreat in bond yields eased concerns about rampant inflation, restoring appetite for battered tech stocks.Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures added 0.62% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures rose 0.55%. E-mini futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.99%. Australian S&P/ASX 200 futures rose 0.55% in early trading. “It’s looking like we’ll see a positive open across Asia-Pacific markets,” said Michael McCarthy, chief markets strategist at CMC Markets. “The big news overnight was the decision from the ECB. There might be some disappointment they didn’t expand their bond purchase program but that’s largely offset by undertakings to accelerate the purchases.” The German 10-year yield was last at -0.332 after falling as far as -0.367%, the lowest level since Feb. 18 and further away from the near one-year high of -0.203% in late February.Read More...

Business News

Remittances surge 24.2pc in Feb

The workers’ remittances dispatched by the overseas Pakistanis surged by 24.2 percent to 2.26 billion in February 2021 against same month of last year when the remittances inflows were recorded at $1.82 billion. “Remittances continued exceptional performance in Feb 21, reaching $2.26b, up 24.2% compared to Feb 20 and roughly same as last month,” said State Bank of Pakistan on its official twitter account on Thursday. For the first eight months of this fiscal year, remittances reached $18.74 billion and have risen by 24.1 percent over last fiscal year. Efforts under the Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI) and the gradual re-opening of major host destinations such as Middle East, Europe and United States contributed to the sustained increase in workers’ remittances. The details show that in February, the workers’ inflow from USA increased from $138 million last year to $210.8 million in the same month of 2020, whereas from United Kingdom the inflow also surged to $349.2 million from $173.8 million in February 2020. Similarly from Saudi Arabia the workers’ remittances also rose from $513.1 million to $532.6 million while that from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman, the workers’ inflow also rose to $429 million, $51.7 million, $5.2 million, $38.2 million, $71.8 million and $82.3 million respectively.Read More...

Telecom sector gets status of industry

Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Syed Amin Ul Haque on Thursday said that telecommunication sector has been given the status of industry and it will enjoy the benefits at par with other industries. Addressing a press conference, he said, “This will be a good news for the telecom sector and for the nation that the federal cabinet has approved to give status of industry to telecom sector and now onward the industry will enjoy all the benefits, which the other industries of the country are availing. “ The government, considering the request of IT ministry, has reduced federal excise duty along with tax reduction on various services to give maximum benefit to the general public and telecom sector. He said that Rs 250 being paid on the purchase of any SIM had also been withdrawn and this will be beneficial for the public.Read More...

NA body passes Nepra Amendment Bill 2020

The NA Committee on power has Thursday passed the Nepra Amendment Bill 2020, empowering the federal government to impose up to Rs1.40 per unit surcharges on power consumers. National Assembly Standing Committee on Power, which met with Chaudhry Salik Hussain in chair, has passed the bill “The Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2020, with five members voting in favour while four opposing it. Five members of committee, who voted in favour of the bill, included Sher Akbar, Amir Dogar, Saif-ur-Rehman, Lal Chand Engineer and Sabir Hussain Qaim Khani. However, Shazia Murree, Saira Bano, Ghulam Mustafa Shah and Riaz Hussain Pirzada voted against the bill. It is worth mentioning here that in January this year the government had increased base electricity tariff by Rs 1.90 per unit. The NEPRA Amendment Bill 2020 will give sweeping powers to the government to impose surcharges on the power consumers to recover the cost of inefficiency and power theft in power distribution companies.Read More...

Ecnec okays projects worth Rs322.43b

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Thursday approved development projects worth Rs322.43 billion related to the different sectors. Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh chaired meeting of the Ecnec. A summary was presented before Ecnec regarding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Human Capital Investment Project (Health Component) to be sponsored and executed by the Department of Health, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and funded by the World Bank - IDA amounting to Rs.13,260 million. The project envisages improving availability, utilization and quality of primary healthcare facilities in four districts of KP and would cover local population of about 8.4 million and 500,000 refugee population. After due deliberation, the Committee approved the above project with the direction that the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be responsible for the smooth implementation and working of the project after its completion. The KP Government would ensure viability and sustainability of the proposed project in the long-run. Read More...