Morning Market Brief 8th Sep. 2020

The Benchmark KSE100 index is being caged in a rising wedge on daily chart and its continuously getting resistance from resistant trend line of this wedge. Mean while daily momentum indicators are still under pressure so this scenario is not good for bullish sentiment. If index would not succeed in giving a clear breakout above resistant trend line of its current wedge then some serious pressure would be witnessed which would push index towards 41,950pts while breakout below that region would open doors towards 41,500pts. While in case of bullish breakout of this wedge index would require a lot of volumes in index moving shares otherwise bullish breakout would bust more aggressively. Current index have resistant regions ahead at 42,530pts and 42,800pts while in case of bearish pressure index would try to find support at 41,500pts. It would be considered bullish until a breakout below 41,500pts take place.

Asian shares and U.S. stock futures regained some footing on Tuesday following a small bounce in European markets as investors looked to whether high-flying U.S. tech shares could recover from their recent rout. Japan's Nikkei .N225 advanced 0.4% as revised data confirmed the nation had slumped into its worst postwar contraction, with business spending taking a bigger hit from the coronavirus than initially estimated. China's blue-chip index .CSI300 tacked on 0.2% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI gained 0.6%, even as President Donald Trump on Monday ramped up his anti-Chinese rhetoric by again raising the idea of de-coupling the U.S. and Chinese economies.Read More...

The government has constituted a special committee to act as one-window operation for K-Electric and sought removal of the top leadership of the power utility over its alleged inability to ensure uninterrupted power supply and address disruptions within reasonable time after recent rains. Highly placed sources said the government members on the K-Electric board of directors had pushed for the replacement of Chief Executive Officer Moonis Alvi and head of the distribution department with highly motivated professionals who could respond to difficult situations and ensure efficient service delivery. “The existing team did not take timely action,” an official said.Read More...

NEPRA has said that the distribution companies (Discos) failed to meet the objectives of power sector reforms and have caused Rs 213.5 billion loss to the national exchequer during due to transmission and distribution losses and less recoveries in FY2018-19. Similarly, 295 fatal incidents occurred from July 2018 to December 2019, leading to causalities of employees of Discos/KE as well as public, said NEPRA’s performance report 2018-19, with comparison to 2014-15 through 2017-18, for the Discos and KE. All Discos have breached the NEPRA determined targets except GEPCO and FESCO and contributed a loss of around Rs. 38 billion to national exchequer. Whereas, the performances of SEPCO, HESCO, QESCO and PESCO remained worse in this regard in FY 2018-19 as their percentages pertaining to breach of NEPRA target are on higher side which leads to increase in circular debt.Read More...

World Bank (WB) on Monday said that it is working with the government of Sindh in finalising a project, SWEEP aimed to mitigate the impacts of flooding and COVID-19 emergencies, and to improve solid waste management services in Karachi. In view of emergency situation and ongoing floods in Karachi, Sindh government will finance and implement activities through its funds. Sindh government may request to reimburse expenditures from nullah cleaning activities after approval of SWEEP, provided they are compliant with applicable WB policies, said Najy Benhassine World Bank Country Director for Pakistan on twitter on Monday. In last week, Najy Benhassine stated that the World Bank estimates that Karachi needs around $9 to $10 billion of financing over a 10-year period to meet its infrastructure and service delivery needs in urban transport/ drainage, water supply and sanitation and municipal solid waste.Read More...

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Monday said the government was taking important policy decisions and doing structural reforms to attract more local and foreign investment in various potential sectors including capital market. He was speaking here at Pakistan Stock Exchange’s Gong Ceremony to mark the listing of Rs 200 billion PHL Pak Energy Sukuk-II. The ceremony was attended by State Bank of Pakistan’s Governor Dr Reza Baqir, President National Bank of Pakistan Arif Usmani, Chairman , Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Aamir Khan, Chairman PSX, Suleman Mehdi and its Chief Executive Officer Farukh Khan, Chairman, Stock Brokers Association of Pakistan, Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, and presidents of different commercial banks.Read More...