Morning Market Brief 1st Jan. 2021

The Benchmark KSE100 index had moved back after completing its 61.8% bullish correction on hourly chart during last two trading sessions inside it bullish price channel. As of now it's being caged in a triangle inside this channel therefore it's recommended to stay cautious and wait for breakout of this triangle in either direction to initiate new positions for short term trading. Overall index have resistant regions ahead at 43,960pts and breakout above this regions would call for next resistant region which falls at 44,200pts. While on flip side in case of rejection from its resistant regions index would try to establish ground above 43,200pts where a strong horizontal supportive region would try to support index against bearish pressure. Index would remain range bound until it would not succeed in closing above 44,200pts or below 42,500pts on daily chart. Daily and hourly momentum indicators are standing in uncertain region therefore it's recommended to stay cautious and post trailing stop loss on existing long positions.

The year 2020 was a wild one for Wall Street, bookended by the end of the longest bull market in history with the battering of equities by the COVID-19 shutdowns, and a bungee-cord rebound on hopes for economic recovery that resulted in the shortest bear market on record. After closing at a record high on Feb. 19, stocks suffered a month-long plummet as the coronavirus pandemic and related government lockdowns sowed panic about the damage to the economy in the United States and globally. A 9.5% plummet in the S&P 500 on March 12, the benchmark index’s biggest-one day percentage drop since the “Black Monday” crash of 1987, put it down 26.7% from the February high and confirmed a bear market, widely viewed as a decline of more than 20% from a high. But the slide only lasted until March 23, when the S&P bottomed. It went on to surpass its February high on Aug. 18, marking the start of a new bull market. The 23 trading days of a bear market were the fewest ever.Read More...

The import of plastic material into the country witnessed an increase of 13.65 per cent during the first five months of the current financial year (2020-21) as compared to the corresponding period of last year. Pakistan imported plastic worth $897.822 million during July-November (2020-21) as compared to the imports of $789.977 million during July-November (2019-20), according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). In terms of quantity, plastic imports also witnessed an increase of 37.50 as the country imported 828,688 metric tonnes of plastic during the period under review as compared to the imports of 602,689 metric tonnes last year.Read More...

Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) jumped 17 per cent this week, riding six-year highs, as a cold spell in some countries prompted record imports into the region. The average LNG price for February delivery into Northeast Asia LNG-AS was estimated at about $14.60 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), up $2.10 from the previous week, sources said. Spot Asian LNG prices have led the energy complex this year, gaining more than 140pc on booming demand and outages in key suppliers. They had dropped to a record low of below $2 per mmBtu in May amid coronavirus-induced lockdowns, but have quickly rebou­nded in the fourth quarter this year ami­d an economic recovery in Asia and a cold spell.Read More...

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collection in the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year stood at Rs2.194 trillion, missing the projected Rs2.21tr target by Rs16 billion, provisional data showed on Thursday. However, revenue collections were increased by five per cent year-on-year when compared to Rs2.092tr during the same period last year. For achieving the annual target, the FBR will have to collect Rs2.769tr during the second half (January-June) of 2020-21. On a monthly basis, the FBR collected Rs504bn in December as against the projected target of Rs541bn, showing a shortfall of Rs37bn. However, it grew by 7pc when compared to Rs469bn collections during the same month last year.Read More...

The Fed­eral Cabinet has directed the Ministry of Industries to inquire into the production capacity of existing car makers, alleging that they have failed to increase their output as per the market dem­and resulting in overcharging and increase in prices of locally-assembled cars. The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday (Dec 29) stated that the “the cabinet directed the Minister of Industries and Production to look into the reasons as to why the foreign automobile manufacturers in Pakistan defaulted on indigenisation of motor vehicle manufacturing through deletion programme and make a presentation to the cabinet.”Read More...