Morning Market Brief 8th April. 2021

The Benchmark KSE100 index had faced rejection from its correction level once again during last trading session and have reversed towards its supportive region till day end. As of now it's expected that index would remain volatile during current trading session therefore it's recommended to adopt swing trading strategy. Index have created a cheat pattern during last trading session in response of its daily bullish engulfing pattern and now it's being caged in a very tight range. For current trading session index seems to find support from an ascending trend line on hourly and daily charts which would try to pump some fresh volumes along with a strong horizontal supportive region around 43,500pts while in case of bullish pull back index would face initial resistance at 44,390pts which would be followed by 44,600pts. Currently index is moving in a zig zag way on hourly chart and is continuously moving inside its corrections on both side therefore it's recommended to stay cautious because if index would succeed in sliding below 43,500pts then this bearish rally can extend towards 42,800pts and 41,400pts in coming days. While on flip side in case of bullish breakout above 44,500pts index may call for 45,200pts. Overall sentiment would remain bearish until index would not succeed in closing above 45,200pts. Momentum indicators are in mixed mode and if index would not succeed in recovering above 44,500pts till day end today then these would turn towards bearish side which would be negative sign. Hourly stochastic is trying to generate a bullish crossover above its 74.6% correction which may push index for an intraday recovery but it's recommended to wait for a breakout on either side before initiating new positions.

ECC again refrains from approving payments to IPPs

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Wednesday put off a decision on payment of first installment out of Rs403 billion outstanding payments to independent power producers (IPPs) but approved about Rs457bn restructuring plan for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) along with retrenchment of its 25 per cent workforce (about 3,500 staff) at a cost of Rs13bn. A meeting of the ECC presided over by Minister for Finance, Revenue, Industries and Production Hammad Azhar also approved absorption of staff of power generation companies (Gencos) that became surplus after closure of over 1,900MW of power plants, but could not take a decision on their pension benefits. Officials in the Power Division said they had completed all formalities on payment of the first installment of about Rs85bn to the IPPs out of Rs403bn outstanding dues agreed under a tariff negotiation process. Read More...

Chinese Am­­bassador Nong Rong has said that during the first six months since his posting to Islamabad he got convinced that there is a national consensus in Pakistan on the need to complete all CPEC-related development projects in time. Interacting with journalists here, Ambassador Nong said that since his arrival in Pakistan in October, he has held several meetings with Prime Minister Imran Khan and the army chief and regularly exchanged views with political and business leaders. The diplomat said the impression he got during these meetings was that they not only fully supported CPEC, they were very keen on having greater cooperation to ensure timely completion of all the projects. Expressing satisfaction over “steady progress” on most CPEC projects and related activities like the creation of Rashakai Economic Zone and Gwadar Free Zone, Mr Nong said these developments were likely to attract Chinese investors. He disclosed that under CPEC several new projects were being discussed at the moment. However, he did not provide any details.Read More...

The Council of Common Interests (CCI), at a meeting on Wednesday, again failed to reach consensus on the controversial national population census-2017 as Sindh continued to express strong reservations over its results. The CCI has been unable to approve the census, which has been on its agenda for the past three years, due to failure of the Centre to allay reservations shown by the Sindh government led by the Pakistan Peoples Party. The 44th meeting of the CCI was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan and attended by the federal ministers, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM Mahmood Khan, Balochistan CM Jam Kamal Alyani and chief secretaries of the four provinces.Read More...

Federal Board of Revenue and all the four Provincial Revenue Authorities (PRAs) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a single sales tax return and single web portal. Signing of the MoU is one of the most significant components of harmonization of sales tax initiative currently underway between the federation and the provinces. On behalf of FBR, the MoU was signed by chairman FBR whereas the heads of all provincial revenue authorities signed the document on behalf of their respective departments. The representatives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) and Balochistan Revenue Authority (BRA) were physically present in the ceremony whereas the representatives of Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) and Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) participated virtually through Zoom. While addressing on the occasion, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Dr Waqar Masood Khan said that signing of the document was another step towards completion of Prime Minister’s vision to make FBR fully automated. Read More...