Business

KARACHI: After a day of stopover, the stock market resumed its northward journey with the KSE-100 index ramping up 219.49 points, or 0.48 per cent, on the final day of the trading week, closing at 46,386 points. The index started out in green and shot up to intraday high by 491 points. Investors accumulated stocks despite the weekend ahead. In …

ISLAMABAD: The prices of key petroleum products — petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) — are estimated to go up by Rs9-11 per litre on Jan 31 for the first fortnight of February if straight calculations of Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) are accepted by the prime minister. However, based purely on international prices published in Platt’s Oilgram, the prices …

KARACHI: As a reflection of growing confidence in the economy, foreign investors parked $104 million in long-term Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) during the last three months (November-January) of FY21. Before emergence of Covid-19 pandemic, significant foreign inflows were noticed in short-term treasury bills, but since then massive outflows were witnessed following drastic cut in interest rates. However, this time the …

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday expressed the hope that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global illicit financing watchdog, would delist Pakistan from its grey list at its next plenary meeting. The meeting is scheduled to take place virtually from Feb 22 to 25. Briefing the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the foreign minister said he was …

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide about $5.4 billion assistance to Pakistan over the next three years. This is part of the ADB’s five-year Country Partnership Strategy (CPS). “The indicative resources available for commitment during the first three years of the CPS period (2021-2023) total $5.4bn,” said the ADB on Thursday. This include $3.6bn for regular OCR (ordinary …

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday reconstituted the board of directors of the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) under the chairmanship of former managing director of K-Electric Naveed Ismail. According to a notification issued by the Power Division, seven out of 11 members of the existing board have been replaced. All the independent directors are new faces on the board …

ISLAMABAD: The Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Thursday allowed Rs44 per unit (5.4 per cent) increase in the prescribed price for Karachi-based Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC). The increase was determined on the request of the utility on the basis of its estimated revenue requirement (ERR) for financial year 2020-21. The regulator said the company will be able …

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has amended some provisions of Anti-Money Launde­r­ing, Combating the Financing of Terrorism & Countering Prolife­ra­tion Financing (AML/CFT/CPF) re­­gulations to align with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. The central bank on Wednesday issued details of the previous and amended regulations saying that these amendments will provide further clarity on implementation of AML/CFT/CPF …

LAHORE: Pakistan on Tuesday received the Geographical Indicator (GI) tag for its Basmati, paving the way for creating a local registry for this particular strain of rice and making a case in the world markets for its protection as a Pakistani product. “I am glad to inform that Pakistan has registered Basmati Rice as Geographical Indication (GI) under Geographical Indications …

A slugfest between Wall Street and Main Street took an unexpected turn late on Wednesday after moderators of a stock trading forum that has helped fuel massive rallies in the shares of GameStop temporarily closed its doors. Shares of GameStop and other companies tumbled in extended trading after Wallstreetbets, a discussion forum popular with retail traders on the Reddit website, …