Morning Market Brief 4th Sep. 2020

The Benchmark KSE100 is being capped by a two strong resistant regions between 42,400pts-42,500pts therefore it's recommended to stay cautious because index seems losing strength on intraday and daily chart which could push index for a correction therefore it's recommended to post trailing stop loss on existing long positions and avoid initiating new positions until index close above 42,500pts. While on flip side in case of bearish pressure index would try to find ground at 41,500pts and sentiment would bullish until index close below 41,500pts but if it would slide below that region then it could start some serious correction which is due since long. Daily and hourly momentum indicators still have bearish sentiment and these have not entered into bullish zone.

Asia’s stock markets had their worst session in two weeks on Friday following a tech-led plunge on Wall Street, though gains in safer assets like bonds and dollars were muted as investors awaited U.S. job data to see if it triggers a bigger selloff. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.6% and looked set for a 2.4% weekly loss, its biggest since April. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.8% and Australia’s ASX 200 2.8%. That was shallower than the 5% plunge on the tech-heavy Nasdaq overnight or the S&P 500’s 3.5% drop. Those were the steepest Wall Street losses since June, but traders said a correction was overdue given recent frothy gains.Read More...

The Senate Standing Committee on Power was Thursday informed that the PTI government added Rs 45 billion per month to the circular debt during fiscal year 2019-20. On 30th June, 2020, the circular debt had increased to Rs 2150 billion from Rs 1612 billion in 2018-19, official of the Power Division said while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Power here. The Committee was briefed regarding alleged removal of domestic meters of small farmers for running mono motors on single phase domestic connections by GEPCO. Points of public importance regarding exact figure of circular debt, transparency in PESCO recruitment process were considered as well. Read More...

Pakistan’s exports have tumbled by around 20 per cent in the month of August mainly due to the heavy rains in different parts of the country. The exports for the month of August 2020 have recorded a downfall of 19.5 per cent in dollar value terms as compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the imports have also dropped by 20 per cent in the same month. Therefore, the trade deficit has also shrunk by 20.6 per cent in August 2020 against the same month of previous year. This was discussed in an internal review meeting at Ministry of Commerce chaired by the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment, Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood. However, the ministry has not shared the absolute numbers of exports, imports and trade deficit.Read More...

The two state companies, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), would provide around 549,821 new connections to domestic, commercial and industrial consumers during the current fiscal year against the backlog of around 2.5 million applications across the country. “Currently, around 2.5 million applications for new gas connections are pending across the country, and the backlog is being cleared in sequence,” a senior official privy to petroleum sector developments told APP.Read More...

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Chief Manager Javaid Iqbal Marth said that State Bank was launching Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) complaint portal on SBP website. He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) here on Thursday. Javaid Iqbal Marth said the complaints would directly reach governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, the chief manager, deputy managers and other officials. He added that the complainants would be able to track progress on their complaints through unique complaint number.Read More...