Morning Market Brief 2nd Feb. 2021

The Benchmark KSE100 index had faced rejection from a strong resistant trend line during last trading session and have succeeded in maintaining below supportive trend line of its ascending price channel on daily chart, meanwhile daily MACD have turned its direction towards bearish side but some kind f serious volatility could be witnessed during current trading session. As of now it's expected that index would try to establish ground above a major supportive region between 46,100pts-45,990pts. Daily and hourly momentum indicators are still bearish but index would try to bounce back after getting support from a strong horizontal supportive region. It's expected that a sharp pull back in bullish direction could be witnessed during current trading session therefore buying on dip is recommended for day trading. Oil exploration sector would try to lead index in positive direction which is being ignited from international oil prices. Currently index have major supportive regions ahead at 45,990pts and 45,800pts while on flip side index would face initial resistance at 46,500pts where its being capped by a strong horizontal resistance but breakout above this region would call for 46,650pts and 46,850pts. Daily momentum shows that index is ready for a deeper correction therefore its recommended to avoid long positions for short-mid-term trading, but swing trading could be beneficial until index completes its correction.

Asian stock markets extended gains on Tuesday on increased optimism about stimulus packages and global economic recovery, while retail investors retreated from GameStop and their new-found interest in silver. MSCI’s gauge of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan was up 1.25% mid-morning, building on Monday’s rise. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and China’s benchmark CSI300 Index opened 1.7% and 0.33% higher, respectively. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.67%. Markets were buoyant ahead of negotiations Tuesday between U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican senators on a new COVID support bill. The GOP’s $618bn stimulus plan released early Monday was about a third the size of the President’s proposal. Top Democrats later on Monday filed a joint $1.9 trillion budget measure in a step toward bypassing Republicans.Read More...

The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum was Monday informed that smuggled Iranian High Speed Diesel is 19.5 per cent of total demand whereas just in Punjab 1364 petrol pumps are illegally selling smuggled petrol. The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum, which met with Senator Mohsin Aziz in the chair, directed that in order to protect precious lives, all ‘C’ category mines in Balochistan, which are the riskiest, must be upgraded to category ‘B’ or be shut down. While being briefed on the current situation of pending issue between federal and Sindh governments for laying 17km gas pipeline of imported gas; the Committee was informed that Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) laid the subject pipeline on December 22, 2020. The Committee took up the issue of the supply of gas to Sui residents and directed the Ministry to write to PPL regarding this and submit a compliance report. Read More...

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based monthly inflation decelerated to 5.7 percent on year-on-year (YoY) basis during the month of January 2021, from 8 percent during December 2020, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported. On month-on-month (MoM) basis, it decreased by 0.2% in January as compared to a decrease of 0.7 percent in December 2020 and an increase of 2 percent in January 2019. According to PBS data, the urban CPI based inflation increased by 5.0% on year-on-year basis in January 2021 as compared to an increase of 7.0% in the previous month and 13.4% in January 2020. On month-on-month basis, it decreased by 0.2% in January 2021 as compared to a decrease of 0.3% in the previous month and an increase of 1.7% in January 2020.Read More...

Pakistan’s exports, for the first time in 8 years, have crossed the $2 billion mark in four consecutive months. “Alhamdolillah, I am happy to share that our exports have maintained growth & for the first time in 8 years, the exports have crossed the 2-billion mark in four consecutive months. Our exports for Jan 2021 are up by 8% to $ 2.14 billion, compared to $1.98 billion in Jan 2020,” said Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Twitter on Monday. He said that according to the provisional figures the exports in first seven months (July to January) of the ongoing fiscal year 2020-21 have increased by 5.5 percent to USD 14.245 billion as compared to USD 13.507 billion during Jul-Jan 2019-20. “Our cumulative exports for seven months of FY 2020-21 are showing a rising trend”, he added.Read More...

A parliamentary committee on Monday asked the government to commit a major part of savings from its drive against smuggling of petroleum products through the Iranian border worth over Rs200 billion annually to livelihood projects to avoid any unrest arising out of closure of illegal business of the people involved. A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum presided over by Senator Mohsin Aziz was informed that about 2.2 million people were associated with oil smuggling in Balochistan because of limited job opportunities. Senator Kabir Shahi feared that when the borders are closed and oil smuggling is completely eradicated, these people would have nothing to do and would tend to get involved in anti-social activities and unrest.Read More...