Oil
prices bounce back after week of sharp falls:
Oil futures rose on
Monday, with traders citing opportunistic buying following sharp declines in
the previous week that brought prices to their lowest since early August
because of ongoing weak fundamentals.International Brent crude oil futures
LCOc1 were trading at $46.00 per barrel at 0412 GMT, up 42 cents, or 0.92
percent, from their previous close. On Friday, the global benchmark had fallen
as low as $45.08, its weakest since Aug. 11.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
crude futures CLc1 were up 48 cents, or 1.09 percent, at $44.55 a barrel. WTI
hit $43.57 on Friday, its lowest since Sept. 20. Last week's losses were the
steepest since January, and took nearly 15 percent off a one-year high for
Brent at $53.73 a barrel that was hit in the first-half of October.Overall
market fundamentals remain weak.
PSO
unveils premium quality petrol:
Pakistan State Oil
(PSO) will launch improved quality petrol and HOBC fuel from Monday morning
(today), ahead of its nationwide sale over the next three to four days. “The
price of deregulated HOBC, under the new name of Altron X High Performance,
will go up by Rs5-7 per litre,” the company’s spokesperson told The Express
Tribune. The upgraded petrol would remain available at current price till
regulator announced new rates, she said. She did not say when the regulator
would announce new prices. The regulator usually intimates new prices at the
end of every month. Pakistan State Oil (PSO) also renamed its Premium XL
Gasoline to Altron Premium. The quality of Altron Premium is RON 92. PSO was
previously selling RON 87 under the name of Premier XL Gasoline. Altron X High
Performance would be RON 95-97, the spokesperson said.
The
fine print on the CPEC portfolio:
Mega projects are all
about multi-billion dollar budgets, fast-tracking schedules and triggering
media hype. However, they also involve creating a consistent but compelling
narrative for stakeholder consensus. Pakistan too, is expected to get a “CPEC
booster shot” of around $5 billion in Foreign Direct Investment over the next
couple of years – with a promise to jump start its sluggish economy, at least
in the short term. Since 2013, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has had
its fair share of highs and lows in the national media but a closer look
reveals that the devil is in the details. Whilst the government claims that
CPEC is the ‘Holy Grail’ of its development agenda, the picture is not as
simple as it is portrayed to be.
‘Pakistan’s economy at a juncture of
turnaround’:
Despite being one of
the most thriving sectors of Pakistan’s economy – fast moving consumer goods
(FMCG) – it remains unexplored with immense opportunities on offer. Unilever
Chief Executive Officer Shazia Syed, one of Pakistan’s most recognised
personalities in the corporate world, has said that the country’s per-capita
consumption in most FMCG categories is still a fraction of what is seen in
other developing countries with similar demographics.
Debt
securities: SECP approves draft trustee regulations
The Securities and
Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has approved a comprehensive draft
regulatory framework under the Securities Act 2015 for the licensing and
regulation of debt securities trustees. In the proposed regulations notified
for public consultation, the trustee registration has been replaced with
licensing and validity of the licence has been reduced from three years to one
year as per requirement of the Securities Act, says a press release issued by
the SECP.
How
power sector circular debt cleared: payments of Rs 341.9 billion, Rs 138
billion made:
The government has
stated that it made a cash payment of Rs 341.9 billion and a non-cash payment
of Rs 138 billion for settlement of Rs 480 billion circular debt of power
sector after coming to power in 2013. Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have
also charged Rs 37 billion on account of interest from the government owing to
their inability to make timely payment, official documents of Ministry of Water
and Power presented to the last meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Finance
on settlement of circular debt reveal.
SC
resumes Panama Leaks case hearing today:
The Supreme Court
will resume the Panama Leaks case hearing today.The Prime Minister’s sons are
to submit their statements in the court today. The SC will also decide on
forming a one-judge judicial commission to hear the case. In the previous
hearing, the apex court had given the children of PM Nawaz Sharif time till
Monday to submit their statements, with the warning that if the statements were
not submitted according to law, the accusations would be deemed true.
No
subsidy: export of urea fertiliser may be allowed
The government is
likely to allow export of 0.8 million tons of urea fertilizer by June 30, 2017
sans subsidy on the proposal of domestic fertilizer industry which claims a
surplus due to sufficient supply of gas by the incumbent government, sources
close to Secretary Industries and Production (MoI&P) told Business
Recorder. The surplus quantity of urea was firmed up at a recent meeting of
Fertiliser Review Committee (FRC) presided over by the Secretary MoI&P,
Khizer Hayat Gondal. Commerce Ministry would submit a summary to the Economic
Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet in its forthcoming meeting. According
to Secretary Industries, fertiliser industry has approached the Finance
Division for export of surplus urea. Accordingly, Finance Division has advised
the MoI&P to work out demand - supply situation of urea fertiliser in the
country during the Rabi 2016-17 and surplus quantity of urea fertiliser in the
country, if any, may be recommended to ECC for export.
Secretary Industries
inquired about the inventory position and expected production of each company
to calculate the total availability and expected offtake of urea fertiliser in
the country to workout estimated surplus. Fertiliser companies intimated
following details of estimated production and the current stock available with
them during the current Rabi season 2016-2017 (October 6-Mar.17) plus reserves
of 273,000 tons of imported Urea available with NFML: (i) FFC including FFBL-
opening stock would be 0.540 million tons- estimated production 1.1 million
tons- total stock 1.640 million tons;(ii) Engro- opening stock 0.480 million
tons- estimated production 0.870 million tons-total 1.350 million tons;(iii)
Agritech-0.046 million tons- estimated production 0.090-total stock 0.136
million tons;(iv) Fatima including Pak Arab and Dawood Hercules- 0.400 million
tons- estimated production 0.525 million tons- total stock 0.925 million tons
and (v) NFML- 0.275 million tons. The total opening stock was 1.739 million
tons whereas estimated production would be 2.585 million tons totalling to
4.324 million tons.
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