PSX Daily Market Review - 10th Jan 2020

Trading volume at PSX floor increased by 82.42 million shares or 29.43% on DoD basis, whereas the benchmark KSE100 index opened at 41,993.99, posted a day high of 42,556.01 and a day low of 41,993.99 points during last trading session while session suspended at 42,523.07 points with net change of 1165.51 points and net trading volume of 249.49 million shares. Daily trading volume of KSE100 listed companies increased by 40.22 million shares or 19.22% on DoD basis.
Foreign Investors remained in net selling positions of 16.99 million shares but value of Foreign Inflow increased by 2.89 million US Dollars. Categorically, Foreign Individuals, Corporate and Overseas Pakistanis remained in net selling positions of 0.007, 16.31 and 6.67 million shares. While on the other side Local Individuals, Companies and Brokers remained in net buying positions of 35.56, 1.88 and 1.65 million shares but Banks, NBFCs, Mutual Fund and Insurance Companies remained in net selling positions of 16.76, 0.19, 4.44 and 1.21 million shares respectively.

World stocks hit record high as techs lead relief rally
The world’s shares hit a record high on Friday as a relief over de-escalation of U.S.-Iranian tensions quickly prompted investors to bet on faster global growth, especially in the technology sector. MSCI’s broadest gauge of the world’s stocks in 49 countries .MIWD00000PUS rose a tad to hit an all-time high and its index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.18%. Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.34% while Australian stocks rallied 0.7% to a record high. Chinese shares .SSEC were little changed. Asia’s gains followed record-setting in the pan-regional STOXX 600 index in Europe and the three major stock indexes on Wall Street. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.67%, with its technology sector rising more than 1%. Apple (AAPL.O) gained 2.1%, helped by news that sales of its iPhones in China in December jumped more than 18% year-on-year.
Pakistan moves US court to stop over $6bn fine in Reko Diq case
Pakistan has asked a US federal court to pause an Australian copper company’s bid to enforce a $6 billion arbitral award while it looks to have the award nixed, reports Law360, a New York-based legal publication. The company — Tethyan Copper Co. Pty Ltd — won the award last summer following a dispute over the rejected Reko Diq mining project in Balochistan. Pakistan argued in a federal court in Washington that the enforcement could have “devastating consequences for its political and economic stability”, said the author, Caroline Simson. In a brief submitted in the court on Friday, Pakistan argued that Tethyan “shouldn’t be allowed to proceed with the litigation while it looks to annul the award based on “numerous substantive and procedural errors”.
World Bank sees uptick in global growth, but warns of trade risks
The World Bank says the global economy should see a modest rebound in growth this year. But the 189-nation lending institution is cautioning that a number risks could upend its forecast, including the possibility of renewed trade hostilities between the world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China. In an updated economic outlook released Wednesday, the World Bank forecast the global economy will grow 2.5 per cent this year, up only slightly from 2.4pc growth in 2019. That had been the weakest performance since the 2008 financial crisis and a significant slowdown from growth rates above 3pc in 2017 and 2018.
Tractor sales plunge 40pc
Owing to persistent depressed demand the tractor sales plunged to 15,200 units during the first half year of 2019-20 from 38,000 units in the same period last year. In recent years the tractor manufacturers have been facing sharp decline in demand mainly due to poor performance of the agriculture sector especially failure of cotton and some other cash crops. The country’s total tractor sales had fallen to 50,405 units in FY19 from 70,887 units in the preceding year. Sales of Al Ghazi Tractors Ltd (AGTL) stood at 5,881 units in IHFY20 as compared to 17,993 in FY19 and 27,839 units in FY18. Referring to these sales figures as ‘alarming’ while commenting on workers’ layoffs, CEO AGTL Mohammad Shahid Hussain said, “We have scaled down our outsource workforce but have kept permanent employees.”
Wapda provides 6.32b more units to national grid in 2019
The hydel power stations of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) supplied 34.678 billion units to the national grid during year 2019. Sources here on Thursday told APP that as many as 6.321 billion units more units were provided to the system as compared to last year. “As many as 34.678 billion units were provided to the national grid in 2019 while some 28.357 billion units were supplied during year 2018,” the sources said. The optimal operation of three hydropower projects, completed last year in a phased manner, proved to be a good omen for hydel generation in the country, since these projects alone generated 9.372 billion units cumulatively during their operation in 2019.