Tag: USD

April 8, 2020 (MLN): The State Bank of Pakistan has allowed the opening of exchange companies, President Forex Association of Pakistan Malik Bostan said on Wednesday.

The above decision has been taken after considering the difficulties in the arrival of remittances amidst the lockdown.

The President said that following the permission obtained in two days, around 10 million dollars remittance arrived in Pakistan.

Moreover, Exchange companies have reportedly brought in around 150 million dollars of remittances.

He further said that halt in supply from overseas and outflow of foreign portfolios had placed pressure on the local currency.

As a result of this halt and pressure, the Dollar in the open market has reached USD 168 against the PKR.

Copyright Mettis Link News

April 8, 2020 (MLN): Pakistan’s stock market plummeted on Wednesday as the concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19 and a consequent economic slowdown in the country continues to grow.

Moreover, the negative international markets and pressure on international crude prices further disrupted investors’ sentiments to the extent that decline in the yields of 3 to 12 months T-bills by 4 to 23 bps in today’s secondary market and leeway of 5 additional months by FATF failed to excite investors.

Accordingly, the benchmark KSE-100 index lost some of the yesterday’s gains today after shedding 260 points and settled at 30,971 points level.

The Index traded in a range of 463.67 points or 1.48 percent of previous close, showing an intraday high of 31,239.72 and a low of 30,776.05.

Of the 97 traded companies in the KSE100 Index 37 closed up 54 closed down, while 6 remained unchanged. Total volume traded for the index was 153.09 million shares.

Sector wise, the index was let down by Commercial Banks with 115 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 45 points, Cement with 37 points, Tobacco with 36 points and Fertilizer with 21 points.

The most points taken off the index was by PAKT which stripped the index of 36 points followed by LUCK with 32 points, BAFL with 29 points, BAHL with 28 points and POL with 23 points.

Sectors propping up the index were Insurance with 23 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 10 points, Automobile Parts & Accessories with 3 points, Vanaspati & Allied Industries with 3 points and Paper & Board with 3 points.

The most points added to the index was by MCB which contributed 18 points followed by IGIHL with 9 points, KOHC with 9 points, KAPCO with 8 points and OGDC with 7 points.

All Share Volume increased by 8.23 Million to 181.00 Million Shares. Market Cap decreased by Rs.67.99 Billion.

Total companies traded were 333 compared to 335 from the previous session. Of the scrips traded 115 closed up, 193 closed down while 25 remained unchanged.

Total trades decreased by 1,754 to 77,224.

Value Traded decreased by 0.86 Billion to Rs.5.89 Billion

Copyright Mettis Link News

April 08, 2020: Stock markets mostly declined Wednesday as EU finance ministers failed to agree on a coronavirus bailout package for the hardest-hit countries such as Italy and Spain.

                  The euro dropped against the dollar and pound, while oil prices gained ahead of a crucial producers' meeting on possible output cuts.

                  Eurozone finance ministers Wednesday failed to agree on a rescue plan to help hard-hit member states face the coronavirus outbreak.

                  "European Union dysfunctionality is the talk of the town... with overnight squabbles seeing finance ministers ultimately fail in their bid to introduce an aid package worth half-a-trillion euros," said Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at IG trading group.

                  The Bank of France, meanwhile, said the nation's economy contracted six percent in the first quarter, putting it in recession and marking the worst performance since 1945.

                  The German economy, Europe's biggest, is expected to shrink by nearly 10 percent in the second quarter as the coronavirus paralyzes the country, leading research institutes warned Wednesday.

                  "The corona pandemic will trigger a serious recession in Germany," the six think tanks including Ifo, DIW and RWI said in their annual spring report.

                  While the deadly disease continues to sweep across the planet, signs that the rate of infections is possibly leveling out and countries are preparing to ease some lockdown restrictions had instilled a semblance of optimism this week.

                  However, uncertainty about how long the crisis will last and the damage it will inflict on the global economy was keeping traders on edge and hobbling any sustained rally.

                  Wall Street, where all three main indices soared at least seven percent at the start of the week, struggled to extend its rally and fell back into negative territory Tuesday.

                  The losses spilled over into Asia, with Hong Kong losing more than one percent, Singapore two percent, and Sydney and Seoul each 0.9 percent.

                  Shanghai ended down 0.2 percent.

                  However, Tokyo jumped more than two percent, helped by a weaker yen and details of Japan's huge stimulus package worth $1 trillion amid a month-long state of emergency for Tokyo and six other regions in the country following a spike in coronavirus cases.                            

                  - Oil higher -                                

                  Oil prices climbed Wednesday, but the commodity continues to swing as traders keenly await Thursday's planned meeting of the world's top producers to discuss a possible output cut.

                  The commodity has been battered by the virus as lockdowns around the world bring the global economy to a standstill and drag on demand, while a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia has compounded the crisis.

                  With Riyadh and Moscow taking part, there are hopes they may draw a line under their dispute.

                  Howie Lee, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. said that while a cut of 10 million barrels "would lend some support to prices",  US participation was key, otherwise other producers would not be likely to take part.

                  Energy ministers from the Group of 20 will hold a meeting on the issue on Friday.

                  - Key figures around 1100 GMT -                    

                  London - FTSE 100: DOWN 1.2 percent at 5,634.71 points

                  Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 1.0 percent at 10,256.78

                  Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 1.6 percent at 4,369.30

                  Milan - FTSE MIB: DOWN 0.7 percent at 17,298.73

                  Madrid - IBEX 35: DOWN 1.3 percent at 6,908.60

                  EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 1.4 percent at 2,818.09

                  Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 2.1 percent at 19,353.24 (close)

                  Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 1.2 percent at 23,970.37 (close)

                  Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 2,815.37 (close)

                  New York - Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 22,653.86 (close)

                  Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.4 percent at $32.00 per barrel

                  West Texas Intermediate: UP 3.5 percent at $24.45 per barrel

                  Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0872 from $1.0890 at 2050 GMT

                  Dollar/yen: UP at 108.86 yen from 108.83 yen

                  Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2349 from $1.2334

                  Euro/pound: DOWN at 88.03 pence from 88.28

AFP/APP

April 08, 2020: The Federal government has so far authorized to release Rs 7.109 billion for various ongoing and new projects of the Finance Division under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2019-20, as against its total allocation of Rs 11834.749 million.

Out of the total, Rs 800 has been authorized to be released for Construction of Sibbi Rakhni Road, out of its total allocations of Rs1000 earmarked for the current fiscal year.

Likewise, another Rs 800 million has been authorized for release to carry out work on Gwadar Development Authority for which Rs1000 were budgeted in the current fiscal year whereas an amount of Rs 800 has been authorized for release for necessary facilities of fresh water treatment, water supply, and distribution Gwadar, for which Rs1000 million were earmarked, according to the data released by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives.

The ministry also provided authorization for release of Rs 640 to complete the dualization of road from GT Road (Samma) to Gujrat, for which Rs 800 million were allocated in the current budget.

The ministry also had given the approval to release of Rs 408 million for Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Mother and Child Health Care Centre, Nawabshah City out of its total allocations of Rs 408.199.

Out of the total Rs 400 million earmarked for Sea Water Desalination Plant at Gwadar (CPEC), the ministry authorized to release Rs 320 million whereas it had given approval to the releases of Rs 320 for Construction/Upgradation of Dirgi Shabozai Road, Balochistan (Federal Share 60%) for which Rs 400 million have been set aside for the current year.

The minister also had given authorization for releases of Rs 240 million for Expo Center Peshawar, Rs 250 for Establishment of Combined Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) for Industrial Areas of Karachi including Laying of Interceptor Sewers (33% Federal Share), Rs 313 for Khyber Institute of Child Health & Children Hospital (District Peshawar), Rs 240 million for widening and carpeting of BooniBuzand Torkhow Road Chitral, Rs 240 for dualization of Road from Bahawalpur to Yazman to Chandni Chowk (Length 35.00km) and Rs 263 million for Chao Tangi Small Dam.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Federal government has so far authorized release of Rs 467.24 billion for various ongoing and new social sector uplift projects under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2019-20, as against the total allocation of Rs 701 billion.

Under its development program, the government has released an amount of Rs 195.6 billion for federal ministries,

Rs 157.7 billion for corporations and Rs 34.2 billion for special areas, according to the latest data released by Ministry of Planning, Development, and Reform.

 APP

April 08, 2020: On Tuesday at Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited, PMEX Commodity Index slipped by another 133 points to settle at 3,278 level. The traded value of Metals, Energy and COTS/FX was recorded at PKR 7.397 billion and the number of lots traded was 12,734.

The major business was contributed by Gold amounting to PKR 4.867 billion, followed by Crude Oil (PKR 644.489 million), NSDQ 100 (PKR 397.079 million), DJ (PKR 392.812 million), Currencies through COTS (PKR 364.931 million), Silver (PKR 276.796 million), SP500 (PKR 246.303 million), Natural Gas (PKR 72.784 million), Japan Equity (PKR 65.384 million), Platinum (PKR 60.353 million) and Copper (PKR 8.407 million).

In agriculture commodities, 19 lots of Cotton amounting to PKR 16.511 million and 2 lots of Wheat amounting to PKR 9.236 million were traded.

 Press Release