Morning Market Brief 28th May. 2020

The Benchmark KSE100 index is moving downward after getting resistance from a horizontal resistant region along with supportive trend line of its previous rising wedge. Index would remain range bound and uncertainty would prevail until index would succeed in closing either above 34,500pts or below 33,500pts. Breakout of resistant region would call for a spike towards 35,200pts where it would face a major resistance again, while in case index would succeed in sliding below 33,500pts its next targets on bearish side would be 33,000pts and 32,100pts in coming days. It's recommended to stay cautious meanwhile swing trading could be beneficial until index succeeds in giving a clear breakout of either side. Daily and weekly momentum indicators are losing strength after a double top formation and these would enter into bearish zone once index would succeed in sliding below 32,500pts.

Asian shares and U.S. stock futures rose on Thursday as growing optimism about economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic trumped immediate concerns about a standoff between the United States and China over Hong Kong. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.5%. Australian shares rose 1.86% to the highest in more than two months, while Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 rose 1.28% to the highest since early March as investors cheered the re-opening of economic activity in both countries. U.S. stock futures, S&P 500 e-minis ESc1, rose 0.36% on Thursday in Asia following another positive session on Wall Street overnight, highlighting the positive mood.Read More...

The Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood on Wednesday said the government was prioritising development of special economic zones (SEZs) for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and transfer of technology into the country. “The SEZs are primarily focused on industrialization that result in export promotion, import substitution, transfer of technologies and employment generation, which are the primary targets of our government as well,” Abdul Razak Dawood told APP here. The advisor said the establishment of SEZs was critical to resolving balance of payment issues as ‘” we tend to give priority to enterprises which are involved in export generation or import substitution” he said .Read More...

The allocation for Special Federal Development Programme for Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs) in the PSDP has been decreased to Rs 17.5 billion from the earlier Rs 32.5 billion while for the security enhancement it has been increased from Rs 32.5 billion to Rs 53 billion. In the PSDP 2019-20 under block allocations managed by the Finance Division originally Rs 32.5 billion each were allocated for the Special Federal Development Programme for Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs) and security enhancement which has now been revised, official documents revealed. After the revision of allocations to Rs 53 billion, the security enhancement has become the third largest component of the PSDP 2019-20 after Water Resource Division and NHA which has an allocation of Rs 118.627 billion and Rs 154 billion respectively.Read More...

The online sales in Pakistan have increased significantly and if Pakistan pursues the development of logistics service and instant delivery service, it will create 78,000 jobs. The traditional offline sales around the world have been seriously affected due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The online sales have been developing rapidly, and as far as I know, online sales in Pakistan have also increased significantly. “If Pakistan pursues the development of logistics service and instant delivery service, and reaches the level of China, it will create 780,000 employment opportunities for Pakistanis according to the proportion of population. The number may grow to 1.56 million in the future,” Cheng Xizhong, visiting professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law said in his article published by China Economic Net here on Tuesday.Read More...

The death toll in the US from the novel coronavirus surpassed the 100,000 mark Wednesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The Maryland-based university counted 100,047 deaths and 1,695,776 cases. The US continues to lead in cases and deaths worldwide from the virus. The UK has the second-highest number of fatalities at 37,542, followed by Italy with 33,072. Nearly 385,000 patients have recovered in the US, according to the data. New York remains the worst-hit state with 29,370 deaths and nearly 365,000 cases, followed by New Jersey with nearly 11,500 deaths and an excess of 156,000 cases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 62,000 doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers have been sickened and nearly 300 have died from the virus.Read More...