Category: Highlights

Stocks on Wednesday extended losses led by cement as record world coal prices are seen denting the sector’s profitability big time, dealers said. After losing 293 points or 0.7 percent the KSE-100 Shares Index closed at 44,373 points at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Topline Securities in a post market note said equities continued to decline as benchmark index settled down after opening sideways. “The market witnessed profit taking where the index made an intraday low … cements sector declined the most on higher international coal prices,” it added. Coal prices…

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A surge in Asian spot LNG prices to record highs ahead of the peak northern hemisphere winter demand season has sparked questions on where the price ceiling for the fuel is. But the answer may depend entirely on European gas hub prices, industry participants said. The front half-month ANEA price, the Argus assessment for spot LNG deliveries to northeast Asia, rose by $5.670/mn Btu or 15.6pc on 6 October, breaching $40/mn Btu for the first time and hit an all-time high of $42.095/mn Btu for first-half November deliveries. It surpassed…

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Pakistan’s total public debt has gone up by Rs 14.9 trillion during the current government as it increased sharply from Rs24.953 trillion by the end of FY2018 to Rs39.859 trillion till June 30, 2021. “The total public debt has gone up by Rs3.46 trillion in the last fiscal year as it went up from Rs36.399 trillion in June 2020 to Rs39.859 trillion till end-June 2021. The federal primary deficit (surplus) Rs 967 billion, interest payment of Rs2,750 billion and depreciation of exchange rate (rupee against US dollar) contributed Rs 665…

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The world has yet to grasp the scale of the task of removing carbon emissions from the energy system, with oil demand likely to be around the 90 million b/d level by the end of this decade, or about 10% below pre-pandemic levels, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said Oct. 5. Speaking at the Energy Intelligence Forum, Pouyanne, whose company was renamed from Total earlier in the year, warned that if the mounting calls to stop investing in new oil and gas projects were heeded, prices would “rocket to the roof,”…

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The world is living through the first major energy crisis of the clean-power transition. It won’t be the last. The shortages jolting natural gas and electricity markets from the UK to China are unfolding just as demand roars back from the pandemic. But the planet has faced volatile energy markets and supply squeezes for decades. What’s different now is that the richest economies are also undergoing one of the most ambitious overhauls of their power systems since the dawn of the electric age — with no easy way to store…

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