PSX Daily Market Review - 29th Nov 2019

Trading volume at PSX floor increased by 120.11 million shares or 52.58% on DoD basis, whereas the benchmark KSE100 index opened at 38,122.72, posted a day high of 38,847.19 and a day low of 38,122.72 points during last trading session while session suspended at 38,706.27 points with net change of 583.55 points and net trading volume of 213.04 million shares. Daily trading volume of KSE100 listed companies increased by 72.87 million shares or 51.98% on DoD basis.
Foreign Investors remained in net buying positions of 3.10 million shares but net value of Foreign Inflow dropped by 0.83 million US Dollars. Categorically, Foreign Individual and Overseas Pakistanis remained in net buying positions of 0.10 and 3.45 million shares but Foreign Corporate Investors remained in net selling positions of 0.46 million shares. While on the other side Local Individuals, Banks, NBFCs, Brokers and Insurance Companies remained in net selling positions of 11.21, 5.16, 0.26, 6.26 and 2.19 million shares but Local Companies and Mutual Fund remained in net buying positions of 5.72 and 15.43 million shares respectively.

Stocks stop short of new peaks as Sino-U.S. tensions weigh
Global shares ticked up on Friday, but hesitated to test an all-time peak as investors worried a new U.S. law backing Hong Kong protests could derail Washington’s and Beijing’s efforts to end their trade war. MSCI All Country world index .MIWD00000PUS, which tracks shares in 49 countries, were up 0.05% at 549.62, and would need to rise only 0.2% to reach all-time peak hit in January last year before the start of U.S.-China trade war. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS also ticked up 0.05% in early Friday trade while Japan's Nikkei .N225 gained 0.27%. U.S. S&P 500 mini futures ESc1 were down 0.1%. New York markets were shut on Thursday for Thanksgiving holiday and with many investors seen away also on Friday, uncertainties remain on how U.S. markets will perceive the latest clash between Washington and Beijing over Hong Kong.
Asad wants first CPEC economic zone groundbreaking before Dec 31
Planning Min­ister Asad Umar on Thursday held separate meetings with key economic ministries to improve the pace of work between project conception and implementation while directing officials to expedite work on groundbreaking of special economic zones (SEZs), one of them before Dec 31. He said this while reviewing progress on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) funded projects on Thursday. A senior official told Dawn that the newly-appointed minister sought to have separate meetings with ministers and top authorities of the power, energy and petroleum sectors to understand how they saw the projects, how much sectoral or market research they conducted to reach conclusions and develop their concept papers. The process should lead to better prioritisation of projects before submitting them to the Planning Commission for approvals and funding allocations. The minister also ordered a business study on how to maximise job creation through local private sector participation in businesses.
Power tariff raised to meet IMF target
To meet another target before a mee­ting of the executive board of the International Mone­tary Fund (IMF), the government on Thursday app­roved an increase of 26 paisa per unit in electricity tariff, instead of 15 paisa allowed by the power regulator. This decision was made at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet that also further increased wheat support price by Rs15 per 40kg to Rs1,365 and exempted two LNG-based power projects in Punjab from ‘guaranteed take or pay’ of 66 per cent gas quantities to facilitate their privatisation that may add a minimum of Rs117bn subsidy to the budget. The ECC meeting was presided over by the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance & Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
ECC reviews plan to revive Tuwairqi Steel
Ministry of Industries on Thursday forwarded a plan to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for the revival of the Tuwairqi Steel Mills (TSML) requesting cheap gas supply, tax exemptions and threshold for new investment to make the state-of-the-art steel mill operational. The TSML has been non-operational since 2013 following the management’s dispute with the then government over gas supply. The proposal submitted by the ministry of industries noted that local steel firms were not in a position to invest minimum threshold of $500 million in the steel sector. The ministry’s summary suggested the TSML was seeking subsidy on gas after three years of operating the mills. The committee meeting constituting an inter-ministerial committee was chaired by the Planning Minister Asad Umar. Other members included Federal Board of Revenue chairman, commerce adviser, special assistant to PM on petroleum division, secretary finance and secretary industries.
Big four auditors face European investor calls for tougher climate scrutiny
European investors managing assets worth more than £1 trillion ($1.28tr) are pressing top auditors to take urgent action on climate-related risks, warning that failure to do so could do more damage than the financial crisis. The case for tighter auditing has been bolstered by public statements from regulators and accounting watchdogs highlighting the potentially systemic risks that climate change could pose. In a letter sent in January to the so-called Big Four — EY, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC — the investors said they were concerned that climate change was being “ignored” in accounting and audits. The letter was seen by Reuters and its contents are being made public for the first time.