News

Stocks add 729 points to overnight gains

Bulls extended their gains on Wednesday as a wave of optimism swept up the trading floor on positive news triggers. Arif Habib Ltd said the index of representative shares opened at a higher level as bulls pushed up the benchmark to an intraday high of 889.97 points. Investors took stock of the recent developments on the economic front that have paved the way for the revival of a loan program

Adani stocks fall on fraud, manipulation claims

Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani saw his net worth drop $6 billion on Wednesday after a US investment firm accused him of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud”. Adani, 60, is the world’s third-richest person, with an estimated fortune of around $120bn and interests ranging from Australian coal mines to India’s busiest ports. But the magnate was the biggest loser on Forbes’ real-tim

The IMF as saviour?

The irony of ironies. An institution which across the globe has been acknowledged as anti-people, elitist and responsible for increasing poverty, misery and destitution across dozens of countries, is now being seen as Pakistan’s only saviour, as it seems the rulers in this country have come round to restarting an agreement which has been in abeyance for almost a year. The ‘there-is-no-alternati

Govt raises Rs852bn at 17.9pc via T-bill auction

The government increased the cut-off yields to raise Rs852 billion through auctions of treasury bills on Wednesday against the target of Rs650bn. The State Bank reported that the three-month cut-off yield was increased by 94 basis points to 17.937 per cent. All the bids for six-month and 12-month tenors were rejected. The central bank received a total of Rs1,593bn bids suggesting that the ba

Data protection bill to strengthen IT sector: Qamar

Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar has said that the promotion of information technology and data sciences are key to future challenges and soon the National Assembly will pass the Data Protection Bill 2021, which will lead to the strengthening of the IT and digital economy in the country. Addressing the US-Pakistani Diaspora Conference on Accelerating Silicon Investments in Pakistan organised by U