June 25, 2020 (MLN): The Ministry of Industries has held a meeting with major oxygen producers and reached a decision with them to supply/redirect oxygen to HealthCare on a first priority basis, Hammad Azhar tweeted on Thursday.
‘3 additional oxygen plants in the private sector will also be coming in production within the next two weeks, he added.
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October 29, 2020: Asian markets sank Thursday after a meltdown in New York and Europe sparked by France reimposing a nationwide lockdown to battle a new wave of virus infections, with fears other major economies could follow suit.
With sentiment already dampened by US lawmakers' failure to pass a new stimulus and election uncertainty, the news out of Paris was the last thing investors wanted to hear as the recovery from this year's global financial rout was already stuttering.
France's President Emmanuel Macron's decision to shut down the country for a month came as Germany said it would impose drastic new curbs as experts warned hospitals would soon be overwhelmed.
The moves followed weeks of exponentially rising new infections across Europe that have forced governments across the continent to put containment measures in place, with warnings that Britain could be next.
The announcements pummelled European markets with Frankfurt diving more than four percent and Paris more than three percent. All three major indexes on Wall Street fell more than three percent as equities suffered one of their worst sessions since the dark days of February-March.
In early trade, Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul and Manila were all down more than one percent.
Tokyo, Shanghai, Taipei and Singapore were all off around 0.7 percent while there were also losses in Wellington.
"Market sentiment is turning, with investors buffeted by US election uncertainty and now economic worries from rising Covid-19 cases across Europe, sparking concerns that measures to control the virus will hamper economic activity," said Kerry Craig at JP Morgan Asset Management.
AFP/APP
October 28, 2020: Apple has accelerated work to develop its own search engine that would allow the iPhone maker to offer an alternative to Google, a Financial Times report said Wednesday.
The report, citing unnamed sources, said signs of the search engine technology have begun to appeal in its iOS 14 operating system.
The move comes amid increased scrutiny by antitrust enforcers, who sued Google in the United States over its dominance in search technology.
As part of the lawsuit, the Department of Justice noted that Google pays Apple billions of dollars to be the principal search engine on iOS devices.
Apple did not immediately respond to an AFP query. Reports in the past have said Apple had begun some in-house research on creating a search engine.
According to the FT, Apple two years ago hired Google's head of search, John Giannandrea, in a move designed to help build artificial intelligence capabilities and its Siri virtual assistant.
AFP/APP
October 28, 2020: Wall Street stocks tumbled Wednesday, taking cues from European bourses that sank on fears of broad lockdowns in the continent to address rising coronavirus cases.
The bellwether Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 3.1 percent, or about 840 points, around 1505 GMT, to 26,622.04.
The broad-based S&P 500 also shed 3.1 percent to 3,287.40, as did the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index, which stood at 11,079.01.
The losses came as worldwide coronavirus cases hit a new high of 500,000 on Tuesday, according to a tally from health authorities.
French President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation this evening to unveil tougher restrictions as doctors warned that many hospitals are just days away from being overrun with patients.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also is seeking drastic new curbs, including fresh shutdowns hitting leisure, sports and the food and drink sectors as she holds crisis talks with Germany's regional leaders to halt surging Covid-19 infections and save the Christmas holiday season.
Besides the coronavirus, investors are also jittery over the US presidential election. Polls showing a tightening of the race in Florida and some other swing states have increased concerns about a potentially contested outcome, even as Joe Biden's lead over President Donald Trump has widened in some key states.
"There is some renewed election uncertainty and there is an ample basis for buyers to keep to the sidelines, creating lower bids that have the potential to feed even lower prices," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.
AFP/APP
October 28, 2020 (MLN): The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has imposed monetary penalty worth Rs.271.622 million on four banks that violated SBP’s rules and regulations during July-September 2020.
According to a notice issued by SBP, the penalty was imposed mainly on violations in the area of CDD/KYC/CFT/AML/FX, Asset Quality, and general banking operations.
Among the banks, the highest penalty of Rs.116.269 million was imposed on Bank Islami Ltd, followed by Rs.86.119 million on Albaraka Bank (Pakistan) Ltd, Rs.59.234 million on Soneri Bank Ltd and Rs.10 million on the Bank of Punjab.
In the previous quarter, the SBP imposed penalties of Rs.1.684 billion on 15 banks for similar violations of rules and regulations.
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