Morning Market Brief 24th Aug. 2020

The Benchmark KSE100 index have succeed in expansion of breakout of its previous triangle on hourly chart mean while index have tried to reverse after expansion of that triangle and getting support from a strong horizontal supportive region. It's recommended to stay cautious because it seems that index would try to take a spike towards 40,000pts to complete correction of its last bearish rally meanwhile a strong horizontal resistant region would try to cap this expected bullish spike, while breakout above that region would call for 40,500pts and 40,760pts in coming days. Index have formatted an evening shooting start on weekly chart but it's not indication of sudden bearish sentiment because it would take this week to confirm the bearish trend and market would try to show some volatility in coming two or three days. While on flip side in case of rejection from its resistant regions index would initially take a dip towards 39,100pts and breakout below that region would call for 38,800pts and 38,500pts. It can be said that index would enter into bearish or corrective zone once it would succeed in closing below 38,500pts.

Asian shares advanced for a second straight session on Monday, underpinned by coronavirus hopes after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) authorised the use of blood plasma from recovered patients as a treatment option.E-Mini futures for the S&P500 gained 0.3%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan jumped 0.65%, moving toward a six-month high touched last week. Japan’s Nikkei reversed early losses to be last up 0.4%. Chinese shares rose too with the blue-chip CSI 300 index adding 0.8%. South Korea’s KOSPI, which has been on a slippery slope since hitting a more than two-year peak earlier this month, climbed 0.9%.Read More...

The government has so far disbursed soft loans amounting to Rs1 billion among 2,190 qualified entrepreneurs under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Programme. Out of total disbursed loans, at least 30 per cent were given to women and the male entrepreneurs received around 70 per cent of the total amount, an official of the office of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar told APP. Highlighting the main youth empowerment initiatives, taken by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf since its inception two years ago, he said the ‘YES’ was launched under the banner of Kamyab Jawan Programme in October last year with the seed allocation of Rs100 billion.Read More...

Pakistan has seen an 88% increase in foreign direct investment (FDI), from $1.36b in 2019 to $2.56b in 2020, according to the data released by the State Bank. FDI improved from 2015 to 2018 and then majorly fell in 2019 because of the rupee depreciation but it is improving again in 2020 even though the economy was hit hard due to the coronavirus pandemic. The foreign investment improved from 2015 to 2018 and then fell in 2019. The drop mainly happened because the rupee's value tanked. It is, however, improving in 2020 even though the economy was hit hard due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is primarily because China is investing in the telecommunication and power sector via the CPEC programme.Read More...

The government has decided to execute laying of new railway track for the supply of Thar Coal on BOT/PPP mode, after the planning ministry said that PSDP funding is less and cannot be committed for the new rail track project. The idea of inclusion of rail connectivity with Thar coal reserves project under the umbrella of CPEC was ruled out by the planning ministry saying that the corridor projects are ultimately liability to the exchequer and PSDP funding is very not as much and cannot be committed, for the new rail track project may exceed Rs50 billion. The planning commission proposed that the rail connectivity can be taken on BOT basis which can be jointly financed by the Federal Government, Sindh, Power Generation and Fertilizer Companies.Read More...

Pakistan earned $489.074 million by providing different travel services in various countries during the fiscal year 2019-20. This shows growth of 15.59 per cent as compared to US $ 423.120 million same services were provided during the corresponding period of fiscal year 2018-19, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said. During the period under review, the personal travel services grew by 15.48 per cent, from US $ 418.780 million last year to $483.604 million during July-June (2019-20). Among these personal services, the exports of personal expenditure and education related expenditure decreased by 51.41 and 26.74 per cent respectively. In addition, the other personal services increased by 17.75 per cent, out of which religious and other travel services witnessed growth of 18.93 and 17.75 per cent respectively.Read More...