Morning Market Brief 3rd Jul. 2020

The Benchmark KSE100 index have faced resistance from a horizontal resistant region during last trading session and moved downward slightly before closing. As of now it's recommended to stay cautious and post trailing stop loss on existing long positions because if index would not succeed in closing above 35,200pts during current trading session then a weekly double and a half moon formation would took place which would try to cap current bullish momentum, while in case of breakout above this region would call for 36,500pts and 37,000pts in coming days. It's recommended to wait for a weekly closing before initiating new positions because daily momentum indicators would change their direction towards bearish side if index would not succeed in maintaining its bullish momentum and a daily evening shooting star could take place if index would show some weakness. Mean while in case of bearish pressure index would try to find ground at 34,500pts and in case it would succeed in sliding below that region then a pressure would start piling up.

Asian shares rallied to a four-month high on Friday on robust U.S. payrolls data and a brisk pickup in Chinese service sector activity but a surge in coronavirus cases in the United States kept a lid on further risk-taking. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5%, reaching their highest level since late February, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.4%. Mainland Chinese shares, which were among the best performers over the past month, extended gains, with the Shanghai composite index hitting a high last seen in April 2019.Read More...

The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) on Thursday decided against privatising the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, owned by the embattled Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), and to run it through a joint venture instead. A meeting of the committee was chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh to review the one-point agenda of the privatisation of Roosevelt Hotel, owned by PIA Investment Limited in the Manhattan borough of New York City. According to a Finance Division statement, the CCoP directed the Privatisation Commission to hire the services of a financial adviser to start the process for the transaction in light of a report by accounting firm Deloitte from July 2019 which recommended that “the highest and best use of the Roosevelt Hotel property is to redevelop the site into a mixed-use [property] (through joint venture) of primarily an office tower over retail and condominium.”Read More...

The government has formally lifted a ban on import of furnace oil to meet peak electricity demand in the country, including Karachi, and asked at least seven oil companies to make arrangements for its import. The decision was reportedly taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) headed by Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar early this week. The committee had imposed the ban on import of furnace oil in January last year to facilitate local refineries to exhaust their stocks. It was later given a one-time extension in April. According to a notification issued by the petroleum division on Wednesday, the CCoE had allowed the state-run Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to import around 195,000 tonnes of furnace oil.Read More...

Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) on Thursday announced that it had started commercial production of gas from two more newly discovered deposits including Thal East Well-I and Bhimbra Well-I, which was being added in national grid for onward supply to consumers. The company is getting 10 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) gas and 2.25 MMCFD gas from Thar East Well-I and Bhimbra Well-I since June 26 and June 28 respectively, a news release said. With addition of newly discovered wells in the national production gathering system, the company said, the country would be able to save foreign exchange, provide sufficient supplies to domestic and industrial consumers. On Wednesday, the company also announced initiating commercial production of gas and condensate for its Dhoke Hussain Field Well-I, located in Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.Read More...

The ministry of commerce has noted that Pakistan’s exports are showing clear signs of recovery due to the efforts of the exporters to diversify the products, in the wake of new opportunities arising amid COVID-19 pandemic and support of the government. The ministry has observed that country’s exports are now declining at slower pace as compared to the previous months when pandemic started in the country. The ministry said that Pakistan’s exports were on an upward trajectory and it showed an increase of 14 per cent in dollar value terms as compared to the same month last year before the outbreak of the pandemic near the end of February 2020. This momentum for February 2020 continued despite the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, as the first 10 days of March 2020 registered an increase of 13 per cent as compared to last year.Read More...