Business

KARACHI: Traders in the old city areas — dealing with the bulk of country’s wholesale trade — on Monday continued to struggle with stagnant rainwater and assessing inventory losses while industrialists in different areas gave a mixed picture of production activities and export activities on the first day of the week. Korangi Association of Trade and Industry President Sheikh Umer Rehan …

ISLAMABAD: The government has so far disbursed soft loans amounting to over Rs 260 million among 552 female entrepreneurs under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Programme. “It constitutes 30 per cent of the total disbursed loans which are amounting to one billion rupees. So far 2,190 qualified male and female entrepreneurs have received concessionary loans …

DUBAI: State oil company Saudi Aramco has discovered two new oil and gas fields in the northern regions, the kingdom’s energy minister said on Sunday, state news agency SPA reported. The energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud said the new Abraq al-Toloul oil field, which lies to the south east of the northern city of Arar, flows with a …

SYDNEY: Asian shares notched a 29-month high on Monday as investors wagered monetary and fiscal policies globally would stay super stimulatory, while an upbeat reading on China’s service sector augured well for continued recovery there. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.5% to reach its highest since March 2018, extending a 2.8% gain last week. Chinese …

ISLAMABAD: The federal government disbursed Rs105.42 billion for uplift schemes during the first two months of the current fiscal year, according to the Planning Commission. It said the government has set a target of doling out Rs116 billion development funds in the first quarter of fiscal year 2020-21. Of the total funds disbursed during July and August, a collective sum …

PESHAWAR: Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) Peshawar service has been reopened for the public, said spokesperson Trans Peshawar on Monday.  The service which was temporary halted on 9th and 10th Muharram now has been restored for the general public. Residents can travel via BRT service to their desired destinations from 6am to 10pm, said spokesperson. The spokesman said BRT Peshawar is …

UNITED NATIONS: The tourism global industry has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, with $320 billion lost in exports in the first five months of the year and more than 120 million jobs at risk, the UN chief said. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a policy briefing and video address that tourism is the third-largest export sector of the global …

KARACHI: Sindh farmers have lost nearly half-a-million bales of cotton ever since the monsoon season began and pest attacks intensified following the humid weather. “Growers in Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Umerkot, Khipro etc have lost nearly 400,000-500,000 bales of cotton in the ongoing month, and whatever crop has survived the downpour is of low quality and will sell at below market rates,” …

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance on Saturday said the country’s public debt was sustainable and its capacity to repay was also adequate. In a statement, the ministry said the government planned to run primary surplus, maintain low and stable inflation and promote measures that support higher long-term economic growth. Quoting latest numbers released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), …

KARACHI: The bulls chased bears out of the stock market in the outgoing week with KSE-100 index recording spectacular gains in four of the five sessions. The benchmark added 1,460 points in the first four trading days but closed flat on Friday with a slight pull back by 26 points. That left the market with net gains of 1,434 points …