Day: July 20, 2020

Stock market gains 320 points amid activities in cement, power sectors

KARACHI: The stock market gained 320 points on Monday as activities were seen in cement and power sector, analysts said.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 37,651 points as against 37,331 points showing an increase of 320 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the benchmark index made yet another recent time high with one of the highest volumes, all courtesy of cement and power sectors.

Market opened on a positive note today with +158 points and gained a total of 410 points, closing the session +320 points. Last 10 days of the month has a scheduled meeting of SBP to decide monetary policy stance with an anticipation of further rate cut.

Cement sector continued the momentum with highest volumes on the bourse, totaling 83.2 million shares, followed by Technology (68.2 million) and Engineering (48.4 million). Among scrips, HASCOL topped the volumes with 32.5 million shares, followed by TRG (27.5 million) and MLCF (23 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Power (+72 points), Cement (+47 points), E&P (+27 points), Textile (+26 points) and Engineering (+24 points).

Volumes increased from 466 million shares to 553.8 million shares (+19 percent DoD0. Average traded value also increased by 23 percent to reach US$ 116.0 million as against US$ 94.1 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HASCOL, TRG, MLCF, FCCL and LOTCHEM, which formed 22 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HUBC (+56 points), FCCL (+24 points), TRG (+19 points), KAPCO (+15 points) and LUCK (+14 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include ENGRO (-12 points), PAKT (-11 points), UBL (-9 points), HMB (-8 points), and NESTLE (-7 points).

July 20, 2020
Rupee weakens by 97 paisas on import payment demand

KARACHI: The Pak Rupee weakened by 97 paisas to the dollar on Monday owing to higher demand for import and corporate payments.

The rupee ended Rs168.30 to the dollar from last Friday’s closing of 167.33 in interbank foreign exchange market.

Currency experts said that the due to first working day of the week the demand for greenback was remained higher. They said that the due to global economic slowdown owing to coronavirus the inflows of worker remittances and exports receipts were also reduced.

They, however, believed that the local currency may rebound in coming days owing to sufficient inflows.

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has said that the workers’ remittances rose by a significant 50.7 percent during June 2020 to reach monthly record high $2.46 billion compared with $1.63 billion in June 2019.

Similarly, on a cumulative basis, workers’ remittances increased to a historic high level of $23.12 billion during FY20, witnessing a growth of 6.4 percent over $21.74 billion during FY19.

According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) the import bill of the country fell by 18.6 percent to $44.57 billion as compared with $54.76 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

This helped the country to curtail the trade deficit for the year. The trade deficit of the country shrank by 27 percent to $23.18 billion during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with the deficit of $31.8 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

July 20, 2020
Mari Petroleum discovers gas in Sindh

KARACHI: Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) on Monday announced discovery of gas from its exploratory well Hilal-1, drilled in Mari D&P Lease Area, located in Daharki, District Ghotki, Sindh.

Hilal-1 was spud-in on April 21, 2020 and drilled down to the depth of 1,202m into Sui Main Limestone(SML).

The well was drilled with the objective to test the hydrocarbon potentials of SML and Sui Upper Limestone (SUL).

The Drill Stem Tests (DSTs) carried out in SUL Formation flowed gas at a rate of 11 MMSCFD at wellhead flow pressure (WHFP)of 887 Psi at 48/64 inch choke size after acid job.

While DSTs carried out in SML Formation also successfully flowed 6.88 MMSCFD of gas with 132 barrels per day of water at WHFP of 804 Psi at 40/64 inch choke size subsequent to acid job.

It is highlighted that this is the 5^th consecutive new discovery in Mari D&P Lease Area based on 1,079 sq.km carpet 3D seismic survey of the area in 2015, which was followed by an extensive drilling program.

July 20, 2020
Pakistan’s oil, gas import bill plunges by 28 percent in FY20

ISLAMABAD: Country’s import of oil and gas fell sharply by 28 percent during fiscal year 2019/2020 owing to significant decline in international prices.

The import of petroleum group has decline to $10.42 billion during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with $14.44 billion in the preceding fiscal year, according to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Industry sources explained that the slump had been observed in terms of value due to significant decline in international oil prices.

During the year the international oil prices were remained lower due to conflict between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war of 2020 is an economic war triggered in March 2020 by Saudi Arabia in response to Russia’s refusal to reduce oil production in order to keep prices for oil at moderate level. This economic conflict resulted in a sheer drop of oil price over the spring of 2020.

Reportedly, on March 08, 2020, Saudi Arabia initiated a price war with Russia, facilitating a 65 percent quarterly fall in the price of oil.

Unofficial reports suggested that in the first few weeks of March, US oil prices fell by 34 percent, crude oil fell by 26 percent, and Brent oil fell by 24 percent.

The price war was triggered by a break-up in dialogue between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia over proposed oil-production cuts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Russia walked out of the agreement, leading to the fall of the OPEC+ alliance.

Oil prices had already fallen 30 percent since the start of the year due to a drop in demand. The price war is one of the major causes and effects of the currently ongoing global stock-market crash.

Pakistan’s import of retail petroleum products fell by 24.54 percent to $4.74 billion during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with $6.28 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

The imported quantity of the retail petroleum products, however, increased by 3.7 percent during the year under review. The quantity increased to 10.8 million metric tons during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with 10.42 million metric tons in the preceding year.

The import of petroleum crude even fell more sharply by 40.44 percent to $2.72 billion during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with $4.57 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

The import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has declined by 20.21 percent to $2.66 billion during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with $3.33 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

However, import of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) registered 17.63 percent growth to $294 million during fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with $250 million in the preceding fiscal year.

July 20, 2020