Home - Mettis Global News

LATEST ARTICLES

Gold price plunges by 800, traded at Rs 71, 300 per tola

ISLAMABAD, May 22: According to Karachi Sarafa Association, the price of 24 karat gold decreased by Rs 800 on Wednesday and was traded at Rs 71, 300 per tola as compared to the last closing at Rs 72,100.

The price of 10 gram gold also witnessed decrease of Rs 686 and was traded at Rs 61,128 against Rs 61,814 of last day.

The price of silver remained constant and was traded at Rs 870 per tola and that of 10 grams silver was traded at Rs 745.88.

According to the Rawalpindi-Islamabad local Sarafa Association, the per tola price of 24-karat gold in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad remained constant at Rs 70,500 and that of 10 grams gold was traded at Rs 60,440.

In international market, the price of per ounce gold decreased by $2 and was traded at $1274 as compared to the last closing at $1276.

(APP)

PKR finds stable ground

May 22, 2019 (MLN): Pakistani rupee (PKR) closed today's trading session relatively unchanged against the USD with the rate remaing stable at PKR 151.95.

Alternatively, the currency gained 36 paisa against Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 192.46 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 192.82 per GBP.

On the other hand, PKR's value weakened by 21 paisa against EUR which closed at PKR 169.61 at the interbank today.

Within the Open Market, PKR was traded at 151.50/153.50 per USD.

On another note, within the money market, the State Bank of Pakistan is scheduled to conduct an MTB Auction today with an auction target of Rs.600 billion against a maturing amount of Rs.500.66 billion.

The central bank has received bids worth Rs.3.3 trillion, out of which only Rs.1.5 billion were for 6 months while no bid bids were made for the 12 month Treasury.

The lack of participation in longer tenors signals the markets view that interest rates will continue to rise in the up coming months.

The overnight repo rate towards close of the session was 10.75/11.00 percent, whereas the 1 week rate was 11.50/12.00 percent.

Copyright Mettis Link News

Closing Bell: A full blown victory!

May 22, 2019 (MLN): The KSE-100 index ended today’s session on a remarkable note, as it gained 1,195 points and reverted above 34,000-mark to 34,637 points. As pointed out earlier, the impact of a plausible equity bailout fund started to materialize steadily at the start of the week, and resulted in a full blown victory in today’s trading activity.

A number of sectors benefitted from this change of ether, with the most prominent ones being E&P companies, Fertilizer sector, and Commercial banks, as they collectively contributed nearly 703 points to the benchmark index.

Moreover, the scrips that emerged as the key performance drivers included FFC (+5.00%), POL (+5.00%), LUCK (+5.00%), EFERT (+5.00%), DAWH (+5.00%), OGDC (+4.98%), PPL (+4.99%) and HUBC (+4.99%).

The index remained positive throughout the day and touched an intraday high of 34,698 points. Moreover, the share prices of 80 companies reported an increase, whereas 10 companies reported a decrease. A total of 140 million shares were traded in today’s session, having a value of 4.8 billion.

The broader KSE All Share index ended the session on a corresponding note, as it gained around 711 points and closed at 25,529 points. It traded nearly 203 million shares, having a value of Rs. 5.3 billion.

Copyright Mettis Link News

MTB Auction: Bid Pattern

May 22, 2019 (MLN): The State Bank of Pakistan released the Bid Pattern for today's MTB Auction.

Auction Target is Rs.600 Billion against a maturing amount of Rs.500.663 Billion.

The SBP received bids worth Rs.3.268 trillion, out of which only Rs.1.5 billion were for 6 months while no bids were made for the 12 month Treasury.

This is the first auction since the SBP raised the Policy rate by 150 bps. The lack of participation in longer tenors signals the markets view that interest rates will continue to rise in the up coming months.

Link to Full Bid Pattern

Copyright Mettis Link News

National Bank reports 16.2% fall in net earnings

May 22, 2019 (MLN): National Bank of Pakistan announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 on Wednesday, which shows that the bank has earned a Profit after Tax of Rs. 4.2 billion, i.e. around 16.2% lower as compared to Rs. 5.1 billion reported in same period of last year.

The Basic and Diluted earnings of the bank stood at Rs. 2 for the aforementioned period, as compared to Rs. 2.38 reported in corresponding period last year.

The fall in net earnings was a result of higher tax expenses, which transformed a positive change in PBT (+13.05%) into negative change in PAT (-16.26%).

The total income of the bank displayed a growth of 17.75%, whereas the total expenses jumped by 3.34%.

The bank did not recommended any Cash Dividend, Bonus issue / Right Shares or any other entitlement.

Consolidated financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 ('000 Rupees)
	Mar-19	Mar-18	% Change
Mark-up/return/interest earned	45,834,763	31,452,921	45.72%
Mark-up/return/interest expensed	30,220,126	17,263,619	75.05%
Net mark-up/interest income	15,614,637	14,189,302	10.05%
NON MARK-UP/INTEREST INCOME
Fee and commission income	4,398,051	4,345,152	1.22%
Dividend income	1,017,955	317,261	220.86%
Foreign Exchange income	1,900,284	351,046	441.32%
Gain on securities - net	101,907	909,967	-88.80%
Share of (loss)/profit from joint venture	(16,015)	43,296
Share of(loss)/profit from associates	25,423	53,075	-52.10%
Other income	1,282,017	448,642	185.76%
Total non-mark-up/interest income	8,709,622	6,468,440	34.65%
Total Income	24,324,259	20,657,742	17.75%
NON MARK-UP/INTEREST EXPENSES
Operating expenses	13,244,195	12,822,536	3.29%
Workers welfare fund	-	-
Other charges	8,598	2,244	283.16%
Total non-mark-up/interest expenses	13,252,793	12,824,780	3.34%
Profit before provisions	11,071,466	7,832,962	41.34%
Provisions and write offs - net	2,213,244	(2,552)
Profit before taxation	8,858,222	7,835,514	13.05%
Taxation	4,580,576	2,727,397	67.95%
Profit after taxation	4,277,646	5,108,117	-16.26%
Basic and diluted earnings per share	2.00	2.38	-15.97%

Copyright Mettis Link News

Unregistered industrial units can get registered by paying 2% tax by June: Chairman FBR

May 22, 2019: Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi says the sales tax unregistered industrial units can get themselves registered by paying two percent tax, benefiting from Asset Declaration Scheme by June this year.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, he said the government will make legislation and take steps against the sales tax unregistered manufactures from July this year.

The Chairman FBR said there are 341,000 electricity and 7,000 gas industrial consumers, but only 38,000 industrial units are registered in sales tax.

Shabbar Zaidi said the government wants to facilitate the business community while enhancing the tax net.

He said industries should get themselves registered in sales tax. He said no complaint of harassment has been received about payment of taxes.

Pakistan’s CAD narrows significantly by 27% in 10MFY19

May 22, 2019 (MLN): Pakistan’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed considerably by 27% to $12.07 billion in first ten months (July-April) of the current fiscal year mainly due to drop in imports and a noticeable rise in worker remittances by 8.45% during the period.

According to the latest data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Balance of Payments (BOP), the imports of goods declined by 5% to $44 billion and imports of services declined by 19% to $3.2 billion during Jul-April FY19, balance on trade in goods and services thus fell by 12% to $27.15 billion compared to $ 30.8 billion in Jul- April 2018.

On monthly basis, CAD increased by 42% to $1.2 billion against $0.87 billion in March 2019. The major components that contributed in increasing CAD is the deficit in primary income which amplified by 40% to $4.4 billion and imports of services which increased by 15% to stand at $887 million.

On the other hand, the deficit in secondary income declined by 2% over the month as SBP recorded the figure at $1.9 billion in April 2019, against $1.95 billion previous month.

On quarterly basis, the CAD dropped by 56% in Jan-Mar 2019 to $ 2 billion from $4.5 billion in the previous quarter.

Copyright Mettis Link News

Policy rates to remain stagnant, Fitch paints a pretty picture

May 22, 2019 (MLN): With the signing of a $6 billion deal between Pakistan and International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country’s economic predicament took a fresh turn which allowed an impact on the equity market, the key policy rates, and the foreign exchange scenario.

While the majority of economic analysts foresee policy rates to touch new heights and PKR value to sink to deeper pits in the next few months, Fitch Solutions Macro Research believes otherwise as their recently published analytical note injects a certain sense of hope in times of crisis.

IMF’s agreement with Pakistan entailed a 7.45% devaluation of the Pakistani rupee to around PKR 151.92 per USD on May 17, from around PKR 141.39 /USD previously.

In return, this stimulated the central bank to announce a 150 bps increase in its benchmark interest rate to 12.25% on May 20.

According to SBP’s monetary policy statement, the decision was driven by the ‘underlying inflationary pressures from (i) higher recent month-on-month headline and core inflation; (ii) recent exchange rate depreciation; (iii) an elevated fiscal deficit and its increased monetization, and (iv) potential adjustments in utility tariffs ’.

Fitch Solutions writes in their note that the “aggressive pre-emptive hike will help to cool inflationary pressures over the coming months, and will also likely have downside effects on credit growth as well as economic activity.”

Following their expectation for inflation to stabilize in the next few months, the research house forecasts that the State Bank of Pakistan will maintain its benchmark interest rate at 12.25% throughout the rest of 2019.

Analysts at Fitch Solutions believe that the 150 bps interest rate hike will most likely support a stabilization in inflation over the coming months. “In particular, the interest rate hike has brought the real interest rate firmly into positive territory of around 3.5%, which should help to stabilize the rupee and hence prices of imported goods. Higher interest rates and a more stable currency will ease consumer price inflation which has already started to fall slightly to 8.8% YoY in April, from 9.4% YoY in March.”

Although the research house’s oil and gas team forecasts Brent Crude prices to average USD 73/bbl in 2019 (from year-to-date average of around USD6 6/bbl), they believe that the recent hikes will be able to counter the inflationary pressure resulting from rising oil prices.

“Accordingly, we forecast inflation to stabilize to an average of 7% in FY 2019/20 (July-June), slightly higher than SBP’s target of 6.0% for FY20 18 /19, but considerably lower from the 8.8% YoY recorded in April,” says Fitch.

But what creates a ripple of uncertainty in Fitch’s forecast is that a similar prediction was made 4 months back when the State Bank’s monetary policy review was in order, that “given that the central bank hiked the interest rates by a cumulative 425bps to 10.00% in 2018, it is expected that SBP will remain on hold for the remainder of the current financial year 2018-19.”

However, this expectation has long been trampled on and we are currently face to face with a benchmark interest rate of 12.25% for the next two months.

In response to Fitch’s previous prediction, Mr. Saad Hashmi, Economy Expert at Topline Securities had panned out a contradictory view, saying that the interest rates would be raised in future and the inflation would rise as well given the 25% rupee devaluation in 2018, the complete impact of which was still to reflect on inflation, at the time.

Building further on this point of view, the first MTB auction after central bank pushed up the interest rates is scheduled for today, where the auction target is Rs.600 billion against a maturing amount of Rs.500.7 billion.

The SBP received bids worth Rs.3.3 trillion, out of which only Rs.1.5 billion were for 6 months while no bids were made for the 12 month Treasury.

The lack of participation in longer tenors signals the market’s expectation that interest rates will continue to rise in the upcoming months.

Copyright Mettis Link News

Debt and liabilities of state-run companies reach Rs1.6 trillion in March

May 22, 2019 (MLN): The Debt and liabilities of state-run companies have reached Rs. 1,593 billion as of March, 2019, indicating an increase of 33.1% as compared to the Debt and liabilities of Rs. 1,196 billion reported in March, 2018.

As per the data released by State Bank of Pakistan, the total Debt and liabilities of companies at the end of June 30, 2018 stood at Rs. 1,299 billion.

The data suggests that the Debt and liabilities of the companies represented around 4.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The total Debt of Wapda amounted to nearly Rs. 88 billion, whereas the total Debt of PIAC equaled Rs. 157 billion.

Copyright Mettis Link News

Services trade deficit doubles in April ‘19

May 22, 2019 (MLN): Pakistan’s trade deficit in services has broadened by 52% in April 2019, when compared to the deficit recorded last month as the figure shot up by $151.9 million from $289.2 million to $441.12 million.

This brings the net cumulative deficit for ongoing fiscal year (FY19) to $3.2 billion which is fortunately much lesser when compared to the trade deficit recorded in the same period last year ($5 billion).

According to a detailed account of services trade published by the State Bank of Pakistan, This month’s deficit is largely financed by the Transport sector which observed a deficit of $271 million in trade of its services and the Travel sector which recorded $164.4 million deficit in their trade services.

Services provided in freight sea transport as well as passenger flights were the main reasons why the transport sector emerged as the biggest source of trade deficit in services.

The transport sector has recorded the largest deficit in trade of its services for the 10 month period (July 2018 – April 2019) as it is recounted at $2.4 billion. Following the sector closely with a cumulative net deficit of $928 million is the travel sector.

However, as compared to last year, the cumulative deficit in both these sectors has reduced by noticeable margins.