Morning Market Brief 21st Dec. 2020

The Benchmark KSE100 index is moving in a bullish price channel on daily chart and it's getting resistance from its initial resistant regions since last week, as of now it's expected that index would start the day with an initial dip which may prolong towards 43,500pts where index would to establish ground above a strong horizontal supportive region but breakout below that region would call for 43,250pts but later on slight recovery could be witnessed before day end therefore it's recommended to stay cautious and buying on dip with strict stop loss could be beneficial for day trading. While it's recommended to wait for a correction or breakout above 44,200pts to initiate new long positions for short term investment. Index would face initial resistance between 44,000pts-44,076pts during current trading session while breakout above this region would push index further advance and it would try to target 44,200pts-44,300pts region. Overall sentiment would remain bullish until index would not close below 42,500pts.

Asian stocks faltered on Monday as unease over a new coronavirus strain that was shutting much of the United Kingdom offset news a deal had finally been struck on a long-awaited U.S. stimulus bill. Sterling slid 1.1% to $1.3370 after several European countries closed their borders to the UK as the country entered a tougher lockdown to fight a new strain of coronavirus. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair an emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss international travel and the flow of freight in and out of Britain. That combined with the lack of a Brexit deal to cut 1% off FTSE futures, while EUROSTOXX 50 futures shed 1.5%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.2% after hitting a string of record peaks last week. Japan’s Nikkei reversed early gains to be down 0.6%, off its highest since April 1991.Read More...

Businessmen on Sunday appealed to the Prime Minister for the grant of extension in date for income tax returns for the tax year 2020. FEBR President Kashif Anwar said that PM Imran Khan himself should take notice of the grave situation, as FBR’s last date for filing income tax returns has expired on Dec 8, 2020, while the taxpayers want some relaxation in the deadline given only 1.67 million income tax returns filed, which fell short of even last year’s figure by nearly 1.3 million. “It is beyond understanding that despite a massive reduction in the number of income tax return filers for the tax year 2020, the FBR has taken the stance that it will not grant any further extension in the last date for filing returns despite that taxpayers are facing difficulties of calculation errors on the IRIS portal, besides the working environment is not friendly due to the spread of coronavirus,” he added.Read More...

Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Sunday said commerce ministry was resolved to achieve $26 billion export target in next three years by exploring new trade markets across the world. The trade diversification, regional trade integration through Gwadar Port and exploring the new market like Africa region, North and South America and enhancing the production of engineering good for increasing export are the main agenda of the government to boost exports, the adviser told APP here in an exclusive interview. He said regional trade and economic integration would play a huge role in enhancing connectivity with the Central Asian States and Afghanistan. Another major focus is on expanding the role of the digital economy and connecting with the international market to increase exports and create new employment opportunities for youth, he said.Read More...

The present government of Pakistan has taken special measures to further develop the textile industry and recently announced a lucrative energy package to help recuperate from the COVID-19 shock was also commendable. These views were expressed by Cheng Xizhong, visiting professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law said here on Sunday. Recently announced lucrative energy package to help textile industry with peak electricity rates offers reduced tariffs on additional power consumption and fixes power price at $ 0.07 a unit and gas tariff at $ 0.065 per MMBtu, Cheng, also a senior fellow of the Charhar Institute said in his article published by China Economic Net (CEN).Read More...

The production of farm tractors in the country witnessed an increase of 19.83 per cent to 19,041 units during first five months of the current financial year 2020-21, against the production of 15,890 units in the same period of last year. During July-November 2020-21, the production of trucks, however, witnessed a declining trend as it went down to 1,326 units as compared to 1,480 units last year, showing a decrease of 10.40 per cent, latest data of Pakistan Automobile Manufacturing Association (PAMA) revealed. Similarly, the output of buses plunged to 233 units during the period under review from 271 units last year, showing a decrease of 14.02 per cent. Production of pickups also decreased by 4.27 per cent to 6,957 units from 7,268 units last year whereas 3,252 units of LCVs, vans, and Jeeps were manufactured during first five months of FY 2020-21 in the country compared to 1,893 units during the same months of last year, thus showing an increase of 71.79 per cent. Read More...