Business

KARACHI: Stocks galvanised 1,400 points (3.4 per cent) in the outgoing week to close at 42,207. Including the preceding week’s gains of 620 points (1.5pc), the benchmark represented a rise of 2,220 points (close to 5pc) in two weeks. It was by far a great turnaround from weeks of losses before. Massive flow of liquidity; attractive valuations; the optimism in …

KARACHI: A new survey released by the prestigious Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP) shows many households are recovering from the devastating impact of the Covid-19 lockdown, but full recovery is still some distance away. In the month of September, for example, 51 per cent of the respondents said they had to make some sort of compromise on food …

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received nearly 23 per cent less income tax returns for the tax year 2020 compared to the preceding year ahead of the Dec 8 deadline. The board received 1.31 million tax returns until Dec 5 as against 1.69m returns filed in the tax year 2019. These include both salaried and non-salaried individuals, …

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Reza Baqir said on Friday that persons with disabilities could economically support themselves and contribute to the society when provided with adequate education, rehabilitation and financial and moral support. He said this in an online meeting with President Dr Arif Alvi which was also attended by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister …

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is expected to roll out a Track and Trace (T&T) System for specific goods including tobacco, cement, sugar, and fertiliser by the end of June 2021, the body announced on Friday at the pre-bidding conference. The FBR said the last date of the bids — to grant a five-year licence for an IT-enabled …

ISLAMABAD: The legal arrangements for additional electricity and gas supplies to K-Electric from the national networks have been stalled owing to non-settlement of over Rs253 billion receivables of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) and the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGCL). Informed sources said managements of both the public sector companies — NTDC and SSGCL — had declined to …

ISLAMABAD: A UK-based global aviation services specialist Menzies Aviation on Friday announced the acquisition of a 51 per cent shareholding in Royal Airport Services (RAS). An aviation services business based in Pakistan, RAS has been operating in the country since 2007 and has a strong position in local markets, a press release said. It has been providing a range of …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports grew for the third consecutive month in November to $2.161 billion, up 7.67 per cent from $2.007bn in the corresponding month last year, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday. The increase in exports is mainly driven by double-digit growth in proceeds from textile and non-textile commodities. Meanwhile, during the month under review, …

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) on Thursday approved a ground-breaking initiative to enable all Pakistani resident and non-resident investors to open online accounts in the capital market. The new regime, part of the SECP’s digital transformation agenda, will allow investors to seamlessly open his or her account with a broker from anywhere in the country without …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan was told on Thursday that development work on the ambitious multi-billion-rupee Ravi Urban Development Project (RUDP) has started and would be completed in phases. Presiding over a meeting on the RUDP and the Karachi islands project, the prime minister was pleased to know that the Frontier Works Organisation and the National Logistics Cell had started …