Morning Market Brief 28th Jan. 2021

The Benchmark KSE100 index is moving in a bullish price channel but its moving beside supportive trend line of this channel since last week and have faced rejection from its strong resistant regions during last trading session and hourly momentum indicators have changed their direction towards bearish side which indicates that index could slide further during current trading session. Currently index is facing rejection from two major components, initially expansion levels of its bullish rally are trying to cap index while this expansion level falls at correction of index's bearish rally which was started in May 2017. These both resistant regions are falling between 46,500pts-47,000pts therefore it's recommended to stay cautious and start profit taking from existing long positions. Meanwhile daily and weekly momentum indicators are already exhausting and index would succeed in sliding below 45,500pts till this weekend then a deeper correction could be witnessed in coming days. There are still chances of a weekly evening shooting star therefore it's recommended to stay cautious. For current trading session it's recommended to start selling on strength as index seems to take a dip initially towards 46,100pts while breakout below that region would push index towards 45,900pts-45,800pts. Overall index would be considered bullish until it would not succeed in sliding below 45,500pts but breakout below that region would call for 44,500pts and 42,500pts. It's expected that if index would start a correction then oil sector would lead from front which would be driven by international oil prices.

Asian shares slid on Thursday while the safe-haven dollar rallied as a sudden sell-off on Wall Street and delays with coronavirus vaccines shook investor optimism about an early recovery for the global economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.2%, with valuations looking stretched given the index had risen more than 6% just this month. Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.3%, its sharpest drop since October, and Chinese blue chips 1.5%. South Korea eased 0.9% led by losses in Samsung after it reported earnings. Even the tech darlings were not immune with Facebook down despite reporting earnings well above expectations. Apple Inc also handily beat forecasts, yet its shares lost 3% after the bell. There was a hint of resilience in Asia as U.S. stock futures pared steep early losses, leaving Eminis for the S&P 500 off 0.1% and NASDAQ futures down 0.2%.Read More...

NEPRA has once again questioned the use of expensive furnace oil instead of RLNG for electricity generation in December, saying that it will probe to which sector the gas from power sector was diverted. In a public hearing on the CPPA’s petition presided over by Chairman NEPRA Tauseef H Farouqi, the regulator reserved the judgment on the petition for the increase of Rs 1.81 per unit in power tariff under fuel price adjustment for the month of December 2020. In the hearing, NEPRA has noted that in December instead of LNG, expensive furnace oil based electricity worth Rs3.6 billion was generated. In case, the same electricity would have been generated by using RLNG Rs 1.5 billion could have been saved, Nepra officials said.Read More...

After completing almost half of his government’s tenure, Prime Minister Imran Khan has met the long-standing demand of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers for development funds for their constituencies and announced grant of Rs500 million for each member of National Assembly and provincial assemblies under sustainable development goals so that they can carry out development schemes for their voters. The decision was taken in a meeting of the parliamentary party of the ruling alliance led by the PTI at the Parliament House on Wednesday. The meeting presided over by the prime minister discussed various issues, including the opposition’s movement, coming Senate elections, the Broadsheet saga, Rs1.1 trillion Karachi Transformation Plan.Read More...

Beijing and Islamabad have agreed on formation of a joint parliamentary committee for effective oversight and monitoring of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and Chairman of the Chinese National Peoples Congress (NPC) Li Zhanshu took the decision during their virtual meeting on Wednesday and directed secretariats of their respective parliaments to take necessary steps for constitution of the joint parliamentary committee. The virtual meeting was the first high-level contact between the two presiding officers after the oubreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an official handout issued by the National Assembly Secretariat. It said the proposal regarding constitution of a joint committee had come from Mr Qaiser.Read More...

Pakistan launched construction work on the Torkham-to-Nowshera portion of the $1.17 billion Central Asia-South Asia Regional Trade and Transmission Project (CASA-1000) on Wednesday. A virtual launching ceremony was hosted by Dr Bandar Hajjar, president of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and Energy Minister Omar Ayub Khan. The state-run National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) will undertake construction of a 113-kilometre electricity transmission line from the Pak-Afghan border to Nowshera. The project is to be completed by the end of next year. The representatives of development partners, UN agencies and other key stakeholders also attended the ceremony, an official statement said.Read More...