Business

KARACHI: Aftershocks from Thursday’s exchange rate drop continued to cascade through the financial markets on Friday as the rupee saw further decline in both the open and interbank markets and the stock market saw an 800-point fall, closing off its worst week in over a decade and half. Large fluctuations shook the interbank market, where the exchange rate touched a high of …

BRUSSELS: The Euro­pean Union is seeking new ways to widen use of the euro and counter the dollar’s global dominance, top EU officials said on Thursday, as the bloc tries to salvage Iran’s nuclear deal by helping companies bypass US sanctions. Fears they will be hit with sanctions have pushed European corporations to suspend their dealings with Iran after Washington …

KARACHI: After only a day of gains, which technical analysts referred to as a ‘dead cat bounce’, the stock market returned to the negative trajectory with the KSE-100 index hammered down by 320.53 points (0.93 per cent) to close at 33,971.12. Although the market opened in the green to extend yesterday’s gains, the optimism proved short-lived as the index began …

ISLAMABAD: Expressing serious concerns over ineffective crop insurance schemes offered to famers in the country, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce and Textile on Thursday asked the commerce ministry and National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) to come up with better packages. The committee, led by its chairman MNA Naveed Qamar, was reviewing crop insurance schemes to suggest measures for …

KARACHI: In what seemed like a repeat of similar episodes in the past, the rupee saw a steep fall against the dollar as soon as foreign exchange markets opened on Thursday morning. Read: US dollar touches all-time high at Rs146.25 in open market “The exchange rate in the interbank market closed today at Rs146.52 per USD from yesterday’s close of Rs141.40,” …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan faced harsh questioning on effectiveness of its efforts against money laundering and terror financing at the “face-to-face meeting” of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on money laundering, a regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Read: Pakistani team off to China for APG meeting A 10-member delegation led by Finance Secretary Mohammad Younas Dagha represented Pakistan at the …

KARACHI: The stock market broke the five-day long bear stranglehold on Wednesday with the KSE-100 index staging recovery of 406.56 points (1.20 per cent) to settle at 34,291.65. The index hit intraday high by 559 points without once taking a dip in the red. The investor excitement was underpinned by the developments in the Oil and Gas Exploration and Production …

ISLAMABAD: Despite currency devaluation and subsidies offered to various sectors, the country’s exports declined by 1.54 per cent during April, according to latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Wednesday. PBS data shows that exports during the month of April declined to $2.094 billion compared to $2.127bn during the same period last year. Moreover, export proceeds …

ISLAMABAD: The large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector shrank 10.63 per cent during March from a year ago, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Wednesday. It was attributed to dismal performance of food and beverages, fertilisers, petroleum products and automobiles sending fears of large-scale layoffs in the industrial sector. On a year-on-year basis, the LSM dipped by 2.93pc during the …

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: A day when the value of the US dollar against the rupee touched an all-time high, Prime Minister Imran Khan set up a committee to control devaluation of the local currency and capital flight from Pakistan. The committee headed by Adviser to the PM on Finance Dr Hafeez Shaikh was formed on Wednesday during a meeting in which members of …