Tag: Solvant Naptha

May 16, 2022 (MLN): The number of Raast IDs registration has crossed the 10 million mark since its launch in Feb22, another milestone achieved by the State Bank of Pakistan in the journey of digitization.

Raast, a flagship initiative of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is a payment system platform that enables various types of transactions among different stakeholders such as organizations, businesses and persons.  The objective of this initiative is to promote digitization and financial inclusion in the country. In the first phase of Raast, launched in January 2021, transactions from organizations to persons, generally referred to as Bulk Payments, was enabled. The second phase is designed to facilitate Person-to-Person (P2P) transactions under Raast. 

May 16, 2022 (MLN): Pakistan’s stock market tumbles to its lowest level of 42,667 points since December 2020 as the government decided not to increase fuel prices.

Moreover, uncertainty on the economic and political front as the country is going through the extremely worst economic crisis and cherry on the top, the melting reserves with no clue of IMF tranche and funding from friend countries have created a strong spell of uncertainty which kept investors cautious, leading the benchmark KSE-100 index to close at 42,667 level, after shedding 819 points or 1.9% DoD.

The panic amongst investors was further intensified by the constant depreciation of PKR against USD, as the local currency settled today’s trade at 194.18, compared to the previous close of 192.53 per USD.

The Index remained negative throughout the session touching an intraday low of 42,373.14

Of the 93 traded companies in the KSE100 Index 9 closed up 81 closed down, while 3 remained unchanged. Total volume traded for the index was 135.50 million shares.

Sector wise, the index was let down by Commercial Banks with 172 points, Cement with 125 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 110 points, Technology & Communication with 108 points and Fertilizer with 68 points.

The most points taken off the index was by SYS which stripped the index of 72 points followed by LUCK with 60 points, MEBL with 48 points, PPL with 38 points and OGDC with 36 points.

Sectors propping up the index were Chemical with 59 points, Paper & Board with 5 points and Vanaspati & Allied Industries with 1 points.

The most points added to the index was by EPCL which contributed 48 points followed by LOTCHEM with 11 points, PKGS with 6 points, COLG with 2 points and PSMC with 1 point.

All Share Volume increased by 42.33 Million to 250.45 Million Shares. Market Cap decreased by Rs.123.18 Billion.

Total companies traded were 340 compared to 343 from the previous session. Of the scrips traded 63 closed up, 263 closed down while 14 remained unchanged.

Total trades increased by 23,344 to 119,299.

Value Traded increased by 1.94 Billion to Rs.8.91 Billion

Copyright Mettis Link News

May 16, 2022: Aiming to promote long-term value creation and “responsible” engagement of institutional investors with the investee companies, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has issued the Stewardship Guidelines for Institutional Investors.

The guidelines are applicable to the Asset Management Companies, Pension Fund Managers, Private Fund Management Companies, Life Insurers and Employees Contributory Funds managed by the Investment Advisors with equity holding in listed companies.

Comprising a set of best stewardship principles, the guidelines provide a comprehensive stewardship framework to steer institutional investors on the effective exercise of their stewardship responsibilities with due regard both to their investors and investee companies

The Stewardship framework, adopted on a ‘comply or explain’ basis, emphasizes that institutional investors are responsible to their ultimate long-term investors and beneficiaries and that their policies on voting, monitoring and engagement, conflict of interest and sustainability consideration should be designed to protect the interests of these long-term clients and beneficiaries. It further provides guidance on how to implement each principle and the outcome that is expected from applying the principle.

SECP contemplates conducting orientation sessions in collaboration with key stakeholders for raising awareness of Stewardship Principles within the institutional investors' community and also a post regulatory impact analysis in the future to assess the implementation of Stewardship Guidelines. The guidelines are available at SECP’s website at https://www.secp.gov.pk/document/stewardship-guidelines-for-institutional-investors/?wpdmdl=44629.

Press Release

May 16, 2022 (MLN): Responding to the worst economic scenario along with political noise, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) crashed by 1.7 rupees against the US dollar as the currency settled today’s trade at 194.18, compared to the previous close of 192.53 per USD.

Throughout the day, the rupee endured a highly volatile trading session with quotes being recorded in a range of 2.2 rupees per USD showing an intraday high bid of 194.20 and an intraday low offer of 192.30.

The country is going through the extremely worst economic crisis and cherry on the top, the melting reserves with no clue of IMF tranche and funding from friend countries have created a strong spell of uncertainty.

Speaking to Mettis Global, Zafar Paracha, President of Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP) said, given the circumstances, Pakistan is at a distance of only 35 to 40 days from Sri Lanka like-crisis.

On the other hand, Malik Bostan, President of Forex Association of Pakistan is hopeful that the dollar will soon reach between 180 to 182 in open market if timely measures will be taken.

Adding to it, he said, “There is a dire need to increase the exports and exporters should immediately bring dollars to the country.”

Meanwhile, the government should also take steps to control the elements of dollar smuggling from Pakistan.

Within the open market, PKR was traded at 193.50/195 per USD.

From July’21 to date, the local unit has lost Rs36.63 against the USD. Similarly, the rupee fell by Rs17.66 in CYTD, with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a wither of 3.37%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

In addition, the performance of PKR remained bleak against major currencies in the month to date as it weakened by 4.69%, 4.38%, 4.37%, 3.31%, 1.69%, and 1.68%, against JPY, AED, SAR, EUR, GBP, and CNY, respectively.

During the last 52 weeks, PKR lost 21.42% against the greenback, reached its lowest at 194.18 today, and touched its high of 152.59 on May 17, 2021.

Furthermore, the local unit has weakened by 8.47% since its high on May 17, 2021, against EUR.  While, it has dropped by 9.39% against GBP since its high on May 17, 2021.

Meanwhile, the currency lost 2.1 rupees to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 237.48 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 235.34 per GBP.

Similarly, PKR's value weakened by 2 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 202.45 at the interbank today.

The overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 12.00/12.20 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 12.45/12.55 percent.

Copyright Mettis Link News

May 16, 2022: Wheat prices surged to a new record high on Monday after India decided to ban exports of the commodity as a heatwave hit production.

The price jumped to 435 euros ($453) per tonne as the European market opened.

Global wheat prices have soared on supply fears since Russia's February invasion of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine, which previously accounted for 12 percent of global exports.

The spike, exacerbated by fertiliser shortages and poor harvests, has fuelled inflation globally and raised fears of famine and social unrest in poorer countries.

India, the world's second-largest wheat producer, said on Saturday that it was banning exports after its hottest March on record.

New Delhi said factors including lower production and sharply higher global prices meant it was worried about the food security of its own 1.4 billion people.

Export deals agreed before the directive issued on May 13 could still be honoured but future shipments needed government approval, it said.

However, exports could also take place if New Delhi approved requests from other governments "to meet their food security needs".

India, which possesses major buffer stocks, previously said it was ready to help fill some of the supply shortages caused by the Ukraine war.

The export ban drew sharp criticism from the Group of Seven industrialised nations, which said that such measures "would worsen the crisis" of rising commodity prices.

AFP/APP