News

Exports of textiles post meagre rise in March

The country’s textile and clothing exports suffered a slowdown last month, reversing the trend of double-digit growth observed over the previous three consecutive months and indicating a decline in orders from international buyers. The sector’s exports showed a paltry growth of 3.29 per cent to $1.299 billion in March over $1.257bn recorded in the same month last year, according to data release

PM Shehbaz pushes for sell-off, outsourcing of Discos

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday directed the authorities to expedite the pace of privatisation and outsourcing of the power distribution companies (Discos) during a high-level meeting regarding the power sector. Presiding over the meeting, the prime minister emphasised the need to seek assistance from private sector experts and globally accepted models to improve the management affair

Government eyes deregulation of fuel prices

Amid increasing fuel prices and the oil industry’s complaints over the rising influx of smuggled oil products, the government has expedited the process of deregulating petroleum pro­duct prices to shift the brunt of public cri­ticism to oil marketing companies (OMCs). In a directive, the petroleum division has asked the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) “to share a presentation on the ana

Stocks extend losses on profit-taking

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday continued its gradual movement towards south as investors opted for profit-booking after the market rose to its intra-day high above 70,700 points. As some investors were scared to invest at high levels, the market began the day on a negative note and the KSE-100 index dipped to the intra-day low of 70,037.28 points in the very first hour. Weak larg

Rupee depreciates to four-week low

Pakistani currency on Wednesday hit a new four-week low at Rs278.40 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market, while gold surged to a fresh record high at Rs251,900 per tola (11.66 grams) in line with the global trend. According to State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) data, the rupee further dropped Rs0.11 on a day-on-day basis, reaching a 28-day low at the close of market. With this, the cur