Business

Alphabet Inc lost $100 billion in market value on Wednesday after its new chatbot shared inaccurate information in a promotional video and a company event failed to dazzle, feeding worries that the Google parent is losing ground to rival Microsoft Corp. Alphabet shares slid as much as nine per cent during regular trading with volumes nearly three times the 50-day …

Bazaar, a B2B marketplace from Pakistan, has launched a simplified raw material sourcing platform, Bazaar Industrial, for manufacturers across the country. In a press release issued on Thursday, the company said it aims to serve as an aggregator and solve problems faced by suppliers and manufacturers in sourcing raw materials in more than 15 categories, including chemicals, construction, steel, textile, polymers …

Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued their bull run on Thursday on expectations that the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would reach an agreement soon, helping the cash starved country avert default. These expectations had also led to the local currency, which has taken a severe beating in the past few weeks, recovering in the interbank market. The …

The Pakistani rupee recovered for the second consecutive day on Thursday, with analysts attributing it to expectations that the government would reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The local currency closed at Rs270.51 per dollar in the interbank market, an appreciation of Rs2.82 or 1.03 per cent from yesterday’s close of Rs273.33, data shared by the State …

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday that matters between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) related to the completion of the ninth review of a $7 billion loan programme were expected to be settled today. “Everything is going alright,” he said in response to a question on how the discussions with the visiting IMF delegation were going. …

LAHORE: A number of petrol pumps in several major and small cities of Punjab have been facing severe shortage of petrol, annoying motorists who were seen waiting in long queues at petrol pumps to buy the commodity. The situation seems worst in some major cities like Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad where several petrol pumps have either no or meager supply …

ISLAMABAD: As the International Monetary Fund and the government currently discussing a plan to rescue Pakistan’s economy, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has proposed that the Fund should work with Islamabad to strengthen social protection and mitigate harm to the most vulnerable by advancing economic rights. IMF should work with the government by broadening social protection systems and minimising reform measures …

KARACHI: Manufac­turers have increased the prices of various milk products including baby formula. The rate of one litre tetra milk pack has been raised to Rs250 effective Feb 20 from Rs230 while it was available at Rs220 in October 2022. A retailer said that the company raised Nido 1 plus 900-gram and 375- gram rates to Rs1,780 and Rs770 as …

ISLAMABAD: The government has approved the maintenance dredging of a navigational channel of Gwadar Port with an escalated cost of Rs4.7 billion – a drastic increase from Rs1bn estimated in June 2022 – to avoid any mishap to cargo ships or imposition of penalties from Chinese port operators for business loss. The navigation channel of the port was last cleared …

ISLAMABAD: The export of services grew nearly three per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year from a year ago mainly driven by information technology. The growth was achieved at a time when the exports of commodities continued to shrink for the past few months, according to the latest data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. …