Daily Times

Pakistan stock exchange (PSX) edged lower amid technical trading. Amid year closing ,the mutual funds and the banks primarily ventured into technical trading in order to balance off the books.

The KSE-100 index opened and concluded the first trading session on a slightly positive note as it managed to gain 62 points. However, in the second session, the market witnessedprofit-taking, exposing the index to fall below 41,000 mark to mark its intraday low at 40,726.65 (-401.14 points). It settled lower by 279.26 points at 40,848.53.

Overall market participation was recorded at 265.97 million, the highest of the week. Worldcall Telecom Limited led the volume chart with 31.80 million shares exchanging hands, followed by Unity Foods Limited with 8.51 million shares swapping hands.All Share Volume increased by 30.75 Million to 267.58 Million Shares. Market Cap decreased by Rs.51.36 Billion.

Commercial Banks primarily pulled down the index by 89 points, followed by Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 63 points, Investment Banks with 28 points, Cement with 27 points and Insurance with 26 points.

The most points taken off the index was by Oil and Gas Development Company Limitedwhich stripped the index of 33 points followed by Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited with 25 points, Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd with 24 points, Habib Bank Limited with 23 points and Muslim Commercial Bank with 22 points.

Sectors propping up the index were Power Generation & Distribution with 35 points, Fertilizer with 29 points, Close – End Mutual Fund with 5 points, Tobacco with 5 points and Textile Spinning with 1 points.

The most points added to the index was by ENGRO which contributed 67 points followed by Hub Power Company Limited with 46 points, United Bank Limited with 6 points, HBL Growth Fund with 5 points and Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limitedwith 5 points.

Meanwhile,Prime Minister Imran Khan told businessmen that the federal government has issued an ordinance to keep the accountability watchdog away from the business community.While addressing traders and businessmen at the Pakistan Stock Exchange, PM Imran Khan said”You will be happy to hear this that we have insulated the business community from NAB (National Accountability Bureau),” “I know there are some of my friends sitting here and they must be happy to hear this because they were also facing NAB cases,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the federal cabinet approved the NAB Ordinance, 2019. It will now be sent to President Arif Alvi.

The premier said the business community had been raising the issue of NAB with government officials, as it was “free to probe anyone”.

“It is our contention that NAB should only conduct scrutiny of public office-holders,” he said. There were other institutions such as the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to probe the business community, Imran added.

The prime minister told businessmen that the government was studying models of various countries to provide relief to investors. He assured them that their problems would be resolved and his economic team would always be there to help them.

Imran said that he would continue to meet with businessmen as he does, at least every once in two months.

“I will resolve your problems because the country needs it,” PM Imran said, adding that new investors would only come to Pakistan if the existing ones were making profits.

“We want people to earn money,” he said. “We want people to make profit.”

In Asia,

Stock Markets were mixed amid optimism over improving global economy, over expectations the trade deal between U.S. and China would be signed soon.

Hong Kong’s Hang Senggained 1.30%, as shares of Chinese tech heavyweight Tencent surged 1.9%.

In Japan Nikkei 225 closed 0.36% lower at 23,837.72 as shares of index heavyweight Fast Retailing fell 2.01%. Japanese retail sales data for November released, came in worse than expected. The government data showed,retail sales declined 2.1% in November as compared with a year earlier. That was below a median market forecast for a 1.7% decline, as forecasted. The data follows a sales tax hike that went into effect in October.

Mainland Chinese stocks shed earlier gains to end lower on the day. The Shanghai composite fell fractionally lower to about 3,005.04, while the Shenzhen component declined 0.68% to 10,233.77. In South Korea Kospi index gained 0.29% to close at 2,204.21 as shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics surged 1.99%.

In global market, Oil prices remained steady, hovering just under three-month highs as upbeat economic data from China and the United States and optimism over a trade deal between the two major economies improved investor sentiment.

Brent crude was up 1 cent at $67.93 a barrel at 1307 GMT, and the West Texas Intermediate was up 4 cents at $61.72 a barrel.Volume of oil trade remained thin in the Christmas holidays and New Year breaks.OPEC+ this month decided to prolong its oil output restriction deal until the end of March and to deepen the cuts in order to balance out the oil market. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier OPEC+, may consider wrapping up their oil output reduction in 2020.