Morning Market Brief 29th Oct. 2021

Technical Overview

The Benchmark KSE100 index had continued its journey in bullish direction during last trading session but it's still trading below correction levels of its last bearish rally and its being capped by two strong resistant regions at 46,200pts and 46,600pts. It's recommended to stay cautious until index set a clear direction either by closing above 46,600pts or below 45,200pts. As long as it's trading between these levels index would be considered range bound and chances of a weekly head and shoulder formation are looming. In case of rejection from its resistant regions on intraday basis index may take a dip towards 45,500pts initially and breakout below this region would call for 45,200pts. Currently daily momentum indicators are in mixed mode and a new direction would be set once it would succeed in giving a breakout of either side.

Regional Markets

Asian shares, U.S. futures slip after earnings disappointment

Asian shares and U.S. stock futures slipped on Friday, as Amazon and Apple quarterly earnings bucked a recent strong trend and growth and inflation fears continued to weigh. Investors, particularly in bond and currency markets, are also worried about varied responses by central banks worldwide to rising inflation.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3% in early trading and was on track for a weekly loss of 1.3%, snapping three weeks of gains. Japan's Nikkei reversed early losses to trade flat. Asian shares were weighed by a fall in Nasdaq futures, which lost 0.73% as Apple Inc and Amazon Inc posted results after the close that missed expectations.Read More...

Business News

Finance ministry warns of higher inflation

Recording fiscal deficit during the first two months of the current fiscal year unchanged at 0.9 per cent of GDP, the finance ministry on Thursday warned that the exchange rate, commodity supplies and seasonality could intensify the magnitude of prices and transportation costs in the country. “The effect of these impulses — surge in international oil prices, exchange rate depreciation and adjustments in administered prices — may intensify the magnitude of prices and transportation cost,” Economic Adviser’s Wing of the Ministry of Finance stated in its monthly Economic Update & Outlook.Read More...

PM Imran wants privatisation process expedited

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to expedite the process of privatisation of loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs). According to the Prime Minister House, Mr Khan issued the directives during a meeting with Minister for Privatisation Mohammadmian Soomro and Finance Adviser Shaukat Fayaz Tarin wherein they discussed the matters pertaining to the privatisation of loss-making national entities.Read More...

Omer Ayub chairs ECC meeting

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Omer Ayub has chaired the meeting of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet. The PTI government had recently notified Shaukat Tarin as Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue after failing to get Tarin elected as Senator to retain him as federal minister. Now as advisor to prime minister Shaukat Tarin will not be able to chair the meetings of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and other cabinet committees. The Islamabad High Court had ruled that unelected advisers and special assistants could not head the cabinet committees. Tarin was the chairman of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, Cabinet Committee on Privatisation, Cabinet Committee on State-owned Enterprises and Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC). Therefore, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub has chaired the ECC’s meeting. An official of Ministry of Economic Affairs informed that it was an introductory meeting and no agenda was discussed. Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan reconstituted the ECC and appointed Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub Khan as the new chairperson.Read More...

GDP growth rebounded to 3.5pc, not 3.94pc, in previous fiscal year

The World Bank has projected that Pakistan’s GDP growth rebounded to 3.5 per cent in previous fiscal year as against the estimates of 3.94 per cent of the government Pakistan. The October 2021 Pakistan Development Update: Reviving Exports shows that the country’s real GDP growth rebounded to 3.5 percent in FY2021, after contracting by 0.5 percent in FY2020 with the onset of the global pandemic. The WB’s GDP projection of 3.5 percent is far less than the Pakistan’s estimates of 3.94 percent for the fiscal year 2020-21. Read More...