Morning Market Brief 21st Jan. 2021

The Benchmark KSE100 index have succeeded in maintaining inside its ascending price channel during last trading session on daily chart but today it would open below supportive trend line of this channel therefore some serious pressure could be witnessed with start of the day but later on a recovery could be witnessed if index would succeed in establish ground above 45,500pts or 45,350pts. While on hourly chart index have formatted a bearish price channel inside its daily ascending channel and had continued its bearish journey during last trading session but still succeed in maintaining above major supportive region of 45,500pts which is a positive gesture for bulls because index would be considered bullish until it would not succeed in closing below 45,500pts or 45,200pts on daily chart. As of now it's expected that index would try to establish ground above 45,500pts initially while breakout below that region would call for 45,350pts and 45,200pts, hourly closing below 45,350pts would penetrate its bullish price channel in downward direction which would pump fresh selling volumes in market and index would lose its bullish momentum. It's recommended to stay cautious and post strict stop loss of 45,200pts on existing long positions while on bearish breakout of this region it's recommended to adopt cut and reverse strategy, because if index would succeed in penetration below that region then a sharp dip of further 500-700pts could be witnessed. For current trading session it's recommended to stay on buying side on dip with strict stop loss of 45,200pts because index could start intraday reversal after a dip. While on flip side index would face initial resistance at 45,850pts which would be followed by 45,980pts where it's being capped by a resistant trend line of its descending trend channel along with a horizontal resistant region respectively. While breakout above these regions would push index further upward in coming day towards 46,150pts and 46,350pts.

Asian markets were set to rise on Thursday after U.S. stocks closed at record highs on hopes that newly inaugurated U.S. President Joe Biden would put in place further economic stimulus to offset damage wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Asian stocks are primed to follow their U.S. peers higher on optimism that U.S. federal spending will revive growth and corporate earnings,” said Ryan Felsman, a senior economist at CommSec in Sydney. “That’s all pointing to a positive day in Asia.” MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.07%. The Biden administration is expected to push through a nearly $2 trillion U.S. fiscal stimulus plan. Australia’s ASX 200 jumped more than 0.80% in early trade Thursday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures rose 0.23%. The Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.38% on Wednesday, and the futures contract is up 0.74% from that close.Read More...

The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has commenced hearing in the proceedings against Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) and 84 member mills for prima facie cartelisation, in violation of section 4 of the Competition Act 2010. The CCP on Wednesday said that hearings against PSMS were held on 7th, 8th, 11th, 15th and 20th January 2021 respectively. The CCP has so far heard PSMA and 40 sugar mills through their respective counsels. The matter was initially fixed for hearing on 20th, 24th and 25th November 2020, however, owing to respondents’ requests adjournments were granted on various grounds. Finally, the first round of hearings is underway with counsels raising their preliminary objections before the bench of CCP.Read More...

Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT) handled a record 1.04 million tonnes of coal cargo in December 2020, which is 32 per cent more than 0.791 million tonnes cargo handled in December 2019. This is the first month that the terminal volumes have crossed a million tonne solidly establishing PIBT as the premier bulk terminal of the country. Also, the terminal handled 5.27 million tonnes of cargo from July to December 2020, which is 19.7 per cent more than the 4.407 million tonnes coal handled in the same period in 2019. In the last six months, a total of 92 cargo vessels arrived at the terminal while the total number of vessels handled during July 2019-December 2020 was 77.Read More...

The production of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) has witnessed 4.28 per cent decrease during the first five months of the financial year 2020-21 against the output of the same period of last fiscal year, official data revealed. As many as 6,957 LCVs were manufactured during July-November (2020-21) as compared to the production of 7,268 units during July-November (2019-20), showing a decline of 4.28 per cent, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). During the period under review, the production of cars and jeeps witnessed a nominal decrease of 1.11 per cent as it declined from 54,382 units last year to 53,779 units during 2020-21. The production of motorcycles during the period under review, however, witnessed an increase of 16.35 per cent by going up from the output of 889,847 units last year to 1035,294 units during 2020-21Read More...

Amid rising prices, the government on Wednesday decided to allow tax- and duty-free import of 800,000 tonnes of sugar and 300,000 tonnes of wheat to beef up buffer stocks. The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet presided over by Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh. The ECC allowed tax- and duty-free import of 500,000 tonnes of refined sugar through the public sector and another 300,000 tonnes of raw sugar by sugar mills. Prime Minister Imran Khan had on Dec 12 publicly congratulated government agencies whose coordinated efforts helped reduce sugar prices to about Rs80 per kg from well above Rs100 per kg.Read More...