Business360

SINGAPORE: Oil prices rose more than $1 on Monday on optimism in the global economy thanks to progress in a huge US stimulus package and on hopes for improving oil demand as vaccines are rolled out. Brent crude futures for May rose $1.07, or 1.7%, to $65.49 per barrel by 0042 GMT. The April contract expired on Friday. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures jumped $1.10, or 1.8%, to $62.60 a barrel. “Oil prices are recovering this morning in line with most risk assets on the back of the US stimulus bill passing the House and as central banks continue to sabre rattle to ward off market-implied financial tightening,” Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at Axi, wrote in a note on Monday. US House of Representatives passed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package early Saturday. Democrats who control the chamber approved the sweeping measure by a mostly party-line vote of 219 to 212 and sent it to the Senate, where Democrats planned a legislative manoeuvre to allow

Bitcoin fell to its lowest since Feb. 8 in thin trade on Sunday, down 3.7% from Friday’s close as the pullback from a record high near $60,000 continued. The world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency has risen as much as 70% since the start of the year, hitting a record high of $58,354.14 one week ago amid increasing confidence that it will become a mainstream investment and payments vehicle. Read More: Bitcoin heads for worst week since March 2020 Earlier on February 26, Bitcoin had fallen over 6% on Friday to its lowest in two weeks as a rout in global bond markets sent yields flying and sparked a sell-off in riskier assets. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency had slumped as low as $44,451 before recovering most of its losses. It had been the last trading down 1.2% at $46,525, on course for a drop of almost 20% this week, which would be its heaviest weekly loss since March last year. The sell-off had echoed that in equity markets, where European stocks tumbled as much as 1.

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Sunday announced that it has achieved the tax target for the first eight months of the fiscal year, 2020-21, collecting Rs2916 billion. In a series of messages on Twitter, the tax collection body shared the details of the revenue collected during the eight months, saying that they received an amount of Rs 2916 billion against the set target of Rs2898 billion. “Last year the tax collection in the same period stood at Rs2570, which shows a six percent increase in the incumbent fiscal year,” it said. The FBR further said that the Rs343 billion was collected during the month of February, more than the tax target of Rs325 billion for the month. Read More:  FBR achieves tax target for eight months of FY2020-21 The tax body further said that they had made tax refunds of Rs152 billion so far, which is 97 more than the previous year, which saw that refunds in the same period at Rs79 billion. It further said that the number of tax filers a

KARACHI: With an aim to promote tourism in the spring season, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has announced discounted fares for domestic flights. The national carrier unveiled discounted fares for flights to Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. The passengers have been offered reduced fares to travel through PIA while carrying 20-kilogram luggage at the price of Rs7,500 for one side, whereas, Rs8,500 will be charged for travelling with 40-kg luggage. According to the PIA spokesperson, the new fares will come into effect immediately. The spokesperson said that the fares have been reduced to facilitate tourists and nationals during the spring season. Read more: PIA restores domestic flights to Chitral, Rahim Yar Khan Earlier in December last year, PIA had introduced special fares to facilitate travellers willing to visit the  highest global peaks  in Gilgit Baltistan’s Skardu and Gilgit. The national flag carrier had announced that it would now be charging a minimum one-way fare

ISLAMABAD: The government is likely to hike prices of petroleum products on the recommendations of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for the month of March. The authority has sent a summary to the Petroleum Division proposing an increase in the price of petrol by Rs20.7 and an increase of Rs19.61 in the price of diesel.  This hike was proposed on the basis of Rs30 per litre levy on petroleum products. The current levy on per litre of petrol is Rs17.97 and Rs18.36 on per litre of diesel. The sources said the final decision on the increase in the prices of petroleum products will be taken by the Ministry of Finance in consultation with Prime Minister Imran Khan. The post Prices of petroleum products likely to go up today appeared first on ARY NEWS . from Business – ARY NEWS https://ift.tt/3stYNT6

QUETTA: Quetta Customs has announced to launch a crackdown on non-custom paid vehicles in the Balochistan capital and Afghan border areas next months, reported ARY News. According to customs officials, action will also be taken against car showrooms involved in trade of NCP vehicles. Also Read: Non-custom paid vehicles worth over Rs11bn seized in Jul-Jan The chief collector of the Balochistan customs said first information reports (FIRs) will be registered over possession of non-custom paid vehicles. The action is being taken on the directives of the federal government and federal ombudsman. On Feb 21, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had said Rs11.2 billion worth of non-custom paid vehicles were confiscated during the July-Jan period. A total of Rs35 billion worth of smuggled items were seized during July-January 2020/2021 as against Rs22 billion worth of such items confiscated during last year’s corresponding period. Also Read: Thousands of vehicles registered through bogus a

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan will launch Al-Beruni Radius, a tourism project for the revival of Pakistan’s heritage on Sunday.  PM Khan is keen on the preservation and conservation of the site, aimed at converting it into an international tourism site. The site’s archeological significance dates back to the 11th century when famous scholar Abu Rehan Al-Beruni during his stay quantified the circumference of the Earth. Al-Beruni later wrote a famous book about the region and mentioned Nandana as a great center of learning. The historical Nandana Fort is located in tehsil Pind Dadan Khan of district Jhelum. Read more: Promotion of tourism sector govt’s top priority: PM Imran Earlier on December 11, Prime Minister Imran Khan had said that the promotion of tourism sector was the top priority of the government. He had said this while addressing a ceremony in Islamabad after witnessing an agreement signing between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and World Bank for ECO Tou

LONDON: British finance minister Rishi Sunak will announce 5 billion pounds ($7 billion) of additional grants to help businesses hit hard by pandemic lockdowns in his budget statement next week, the government said on Saturday. Shops, bars, clubs, hotels, restaurants, gyms and hair salons would be among nearly 700,000 companies eligible for new direct cash grants of up 18,000 pounds. The government said the funding takes the total spent on direct grants to businesses during the crisis to 25 billion pounds. Encouraged by the rapid roll-out of vaccines, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled a route out of lockdown for England. However, some businesses will need to remain shuttered until the summer. “There’s now light at the end of the tunnel and this 5 billion pounds of extra cash grants will ensure our high streets can open their doors with optimism,” said Sunak. Local authorities in England will also get an extra 425 million pounds to distribute grants to businesses n

KARACHI: The federal minister for information technology and telecommunications Syed Amin uI Haque addressed on Saturday a consumer conference saying the only way to resolving the issues is to acknowledge them first, ARY News reported. Minister Syed Amin UI Haque said his department is putting in efforts to decipher the problems the telecommunication clients are suffering as he noted the 180 million-strong mobile phone consumer base should know their rights so they can claim them. He said while at the moment there were only 90 million internet users in the country, it would be a wish come true if the numbers could be taken to 100 per cent. Separately, encouraging the entrepreneurs to dabble in the sector, he said the chances of losses while investing in IT were next to none. READ: FBR achieves tax target for eight months of FY2020-21 Separately today on the revenue front, the Federal Board of Revenue FBR announced that it has successfully achieved tax targets for the first eight

NEW DELHI: India’s conglomerate Reliance Industries has partnered with Facebook, Google and fintech player Infibeam to set up a national digital payment network, Economic Times newspaper reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources. Last year, India’s central bank invited companies to forge new umbrella entities (NUEs) to create a payments network that would rival the system operated by the National Payments Council of India (NPCI), as it seeks to reduce concentration risks in the space. Set up in 2008, NPCI is a not-for-profit company, which as of March 2019 counted dozens of banks as its shareholders, including the State Bank of India, Citibank and HSBC. It processes billions of dollars in payments daily via services that include inter-bank fund transfers, ATM transactions and digital payments. Citing three unnamed sources, India’s leading business daily Economic Times said that the group led by Reliance and Infibeam was in the advanced stages of submitting their proposal to the

KARACHI: The per tola gold price on Saturday witnessed a decrease of Rs900 to Rs108,100 in the domestic market, ARY News reported. Sharing the price of the precious metal, All Pakistan Jewelers Manufacturers Association Chairman Muhammad Arshad said that the rate of 10 grams of gold decreased by Rs770 to Rs92,678. In the international market, gold tumbled 3 per cent to an eight-month low on Friday en route to its worst month since November 2016 as a stronger dollar and elevated U.S. Treasury yields hammered non-yielding bullion’s appeal. Spot gold was down 2.5% at $1,726.31 per ounce by 1:34 p.m. ET (1834 GMT), after touching $1,716.85, its lowest since June 2020. Bullion is down 6.4% so far this month. Read More: Gold prices continue to fall in domestic market Earlier on February 25, gold prices had extended a downward trend in the domestic market for the second consecutive day on Thursday as per tola price of yellow metal decreased by Rs500 to Rs110,150. Sharing the price of

KARACHI: Rupee continued to gain strength in the open market and inter-bank against the dollar at the end of the week as the US currency declined by Rs1 in a week, ARY NEWS reported on Saturday. According to a report , the dollar witnessed a decline by Rs 1 in the inter-bank and 90-paisa in the open market during the week ended on Saturday. “The greenback ended up at the lowest rate in the past three months at Rs 158.10 in the interbank,” it said adding that in the open market, the US currency slides down from Rs159.30 to Rs158.40 during the week. The other currencies in the open market also witnessed a decline against the local currency as Euro declined by 20-paisa to close at Rs192.50 and, the British pound went down by 50-paisa to end the week at Rs221. Similarly, the Emirati Dirham and Saudi Riyal also witnessed a decline by 20-paisa each to end the week at Rs43.20 and Rs42.10 respectively. It is pertinent to mention here large inflows of foreign currency in the Roshan Digita

Online brokerage Robinhood, at the centre of this year’s retail trading frenzy, is planning to file confidentially for an initial public offering as soon as March, Bloomberg News reported late on Friday, citing sources. The California-based brokerage has held talks in the past week with underwriters about moving forward with a filing within weeks, Bloomberg said. Robinhood did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters reported last year that Robinhood has picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc to lead preparations for an initial public offering which could value it at more than $20 billion. Robinhood was at the heart of a mania that gripped retail investors in late January following calls on Reddit thread WallStreetBets to trade certain stocks that were being heavily shorted by hedge funds. The online brokerage tapped around $3.4 billion in funding after its finances were strained due to the massive trading in shares of companies such as GameStop. About Robinhood Robinh

WASHINGTON: Bots on major social media platforms have been hyping up GameStop Corp and other “meme” stocks, according to an analysis by Massachusetts-based cyber security company PiiQ Media, suggesting organized economic or foreign actors may have played a role in the Reddit-driven trading frenzy. Shares of GameStop soared last month after Reddit users banded together to squeeze hedge funds that had bet against the video game retailer and other companies. Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman told Congress this month that bots, artificial or fake accounts with automated content, had not played a “significant role” in GameStop Reddit message traffic. PiiQ Media’s analysis of Twitter Inc, Facebook Inc, Instagram and YouTube posts, however, found that bots used the platforms to push GameStop and other “meme” stocks, although it is unclear how influential they were in the overall saga. A startup that focuses on social media risks, PiiQ said it examined patterns of keywords such as “Hold

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has announced discounted fares for domestic flights after the arrival of the spring season to promote tourism and travel facilities, ARY News reported on Saturday. The national carrier unveiled discounted fares for flights to Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. The passengers have been offered reduced fares to travel through PIA while carrying 20-kilogram luggage at the price of Rs7,500 for one side, whereas, Rs8,500 will be charged for travelling with 40-kg luggage. According to the PIA spokesperson, the new fares will come into effect immediately. The spokesperson said that the fares have been reduced to facilitate tourists and nationals during the spring season. Read: PIA restores domestic flights to Chitral, Rahim Yar Khan Earlier in December last year, PIA had introduced special fares to facilitate travellers willing to visit the highest global peaks in Gilgit Baltistan’s Skardu and Gilgit. The national flag carrier had announced t

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub said on Friday that a new agreement signed with Qatar for the import of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is 31 percent cheaper compared to the previous agreements, ARY News reported. Taking to Twitter, the federal minister said that the pact will save Pakistan $312 million annually. The deal will help the country save  $312 mn annually. It will also make a difference of three billion dollars for ten years, he added. الحمد للہ وزیر اعظم عمران خان کے زیرِقیادت قطر کیساتھ10 سالہ ایل این جی درآمدمعاہدہ طے پا گیااس معاہدے سے ماضی کے مقابلے میں 31 فیصد سستی ایل این جی ملے گی جس سے 312 ملین ڈالر کی سالانہ بچت ہوگی. معاہدے میں گنجائش رکھی گئی ہے کی سردیوں میں زیادہ طلب کیوجہ سے اضافی گیس بھی لے سکیں pic.twitter.com/Hxc2LwZ2o5 — Omar Ayub Khan (@OmarAyubKhan) February 26, 2021 The minister further wrote that the agreement will also provide Pakistan an additional gas in winters. Pakistan on Friday inked a new agreement with Qatar for the imp

ISLAMABAD: Federal government has released funds of Rs479.23 billion earmarked for projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2020-21, ARY NEWS reported quoting public documents.   According to a document available with ARY NEWS, among the overall funds released under the PSDP, Rs310 billion were provided for projects under various federal ministries. It shows that Rs 98 billion were released for National Highway Authority (NHA), Rs39.84 billion for NTDC and PEPCO, Rs29.30 billion for Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) development projects. Read More:  Govt shares details of uplift funds disbursed under PSDP 2020-21 The federal government released Rs24 billion were released for the cabinet division’s uplift projects. Further sharing the funds released for various ministries, it showed that Rs63.97 billion were provided for projects under the ministry for water resources, Rs52.521 billion for finance ministry’s projects, Rs10.78 billion for develo

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday announced that it has successfully achieved tax targets for the first eight months of the fiscal year 2020-21, ARY NEWS reported. According to a spokesman for the FBR, it has successfully collected a tax amount of Rs2,900 billion in the first eight months of the fiscal year, which is higher than the revenue target of Rs2898 billion, set for the period. The target for the eight months was achieved two days ahead of the end of February 2020, the FBR spokesman said adding that more revenue would be generated by the end of the ongoing month. It is pertinent to mention here that a similar achievement was made by the tax collection body during the last month after the FBR collected Rs 364 billion in taxes during the month of January 2021, surpassing its monthly target for January 2021 which was set at Rs 340 billion. The FBR released its provisional revenue collection figures for the first seven months of the current year, showing a

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has released the weekly inflation statistics on Friday noting a 2.41 per cent increase in Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) which collectively computes the prices of essential item basket, ARY News reported. SPI comprises 51 essential items and the prices are being collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country, says PBS. According to the report, 25 amongst the essential items in the SPI basket recorded a jump in their prices, while 21 remained unchanged. It said there was a recorded Rs2.7 surge in the price of electricity unit over the period of past week, which is amongst the 25 items in SPI basket that recorded price increases to add to overall inflationary numbers. Price of poultry jumped Rs5.25; of sugar Rs8; of 20kg wheat flour bag Rs8.13, said the report released today. Other things to concede price jump are pulses, clothing fabrics, eggs, and powdered milk. Separately, prices of tomatoes, onions, jaggery, and firewood hav

PARIS: Airbus is working on hybrid-electric propulsion among the options for reducing jetliner emissions, the European planemaker said on Friday. It disclosed the initiative in a document projecting more than a million tonnes of equivalent CO2 emissions over the life of each current-generation jet, as it became the first planemaker to report so-called “Scope 3” emissions. Until now, Airbus has mainly publicised hydrogen as the preferred energy source for future airplanes, pledging to introduce the first hydrogen-powered commercial plane in 2035. But on Friday it said it was also working on hybrid-electric alternatives. “The company’s work in electric flight has laid the groundwork for our future concept of zero-emission commercial aircraft,” Airbus said, adding it is “now exploring a variety of hybrid-electric and hydrogen technology options”. Although experts say hydrogen could power relatively small planes to start with and galvanise green investments, it poses challenges becau

LONDON: Bitcoin fell over 6% on Friday to its lowest in two weeks as a rout in global bond markets sent yields flying and sparked a sell-off in riskier assets. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency slumped as low as $44,451 before recovering most of its losses. It was last trading down 1.2% at $46,525, on course for a drop of almost 20% this week, which would be its heaviest weekly loss since March last year. The sell-off echoed that in equity markets, where European stocks tumbled as much as 1.5%, with concerns over lofty valuations also hammering demand. Asian stocks fell by the most in nine months. “When flight to safety mode is on, it is the riskier investments that get pulled first,” Denis Vinokourov of London-based cryptocurrency exchange BeQuant wrote in a note. Bitcoin has risen about 60% from the start of the year, hitting an all-time high of $58,354 this month as mainstream companies such as Tesla Inc and Mastercard Inc embraced cryptocurrencies. Its stunning gains in rece

KARACHI: Three new airlines on Friday have sought Regular Public Transport (RPT) permit from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to operate domestic flights across Pakistan. As per details, three new airlines Q-Airlines, Fly Jinnah and Jet Green Airlines have sought permission from the CAA to operate domestic flights in the country. Sources privy to the development said that scrutiny of two Q-Airlines and Fly Jinnah has been completed while Jet Green Airlines is still going through the process of scrutiny. After scrutiny, two cases have been forwarded to the Aviation Division and after approval from the federal cabinet, the RPT licences would be issued to them. The case of third airlines will also be forwarded to the Aviation Division after scrutiny, the sources said. Read more: PM Imran inaugurates new airline AirSial in Sialkot According to the CAA laws, new airlines are bound to operate domestic flights for a year at least with three aircraft and after completion of the period,

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday inked a new agreement with Qatar for the import of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), ARY News reported.  The ceremony held in Islamabad was also attended by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Energy Minister Umar Ayub and his Qatari counterpart signed the agreement on behalf of their respective countries. According to the agreement, Qatar will provide three million tones of LNG to Pakistan in the next ten years. The new agreement for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) with Qatar will save $300 million annually of Pakistan’s exchequer. Speaking at the ceremony, SAPM on Petroleum, Nadeem Babar said that the new era of mutual relations has kicked off between Pakistan and Qatar with the new agreement. He said that the agreement will help in opening new ways for industrial cooperation. Earlier this year, Pakistan allowed its private sector to import Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as the oil and gas regulatory body issued import licenses to at least two companies. Read more:

ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has proposed a Rs20.7 per litre hike in petrol price for the next month, ARY News reported, citing sources. The OGRA proposed hiking price of diesel by Rs19.61. It has forwarded a summary to the petroleum division for approval, the sources said. This hike was proposed on the basis of Rs30 per litre levy on petroleum products as compared to Rs17.97 levy the government is currently charging on per litre of petrol and Rs18.36 on per litre of diesel. On February 15, Prime Minister Imran Khan had rejected a summary of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) that recommended an increase in prices of petroleum products from February 16. “The federal government will not increase fuel prices for the remaining days of the ongoing month in order to provide relief to masses,” said the prime minister in a statement. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) in its summary had proposed Rs14.7 per litre hike in petrol price from Febr

ISLAMABAD: In a major development, the federal cabinet on Thursday gave a nod to a new agreement with Qatar for the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG), ARY News reported. According to the details, the decision was taken by the cabinet which met here in Islamabad with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair. The LNG import agreement will be signed during a ceremony in the federal cabinet tomorrow. During the meeting, the prime minister took the cabinet members into confidence over his recent visit to Sri Lanka. Talking about the upcoming Senate elections, PM Imran Khan said that they believed in transparency and rule of law. He said that the government wanted to introduce a transparent and merit-based system in the country. Read More: 12 LNG cargoes arranged for Jan 2021: petroleum division Last year on December 19, the spokesperson of the Petroleum Division had said that 12 cargoes of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) had been arranged for January 2021. While giving a statement reg

Coinbase, the biggest US cryptocurrency exchange, moved a step closer to listing on the Nasdaq with a filing on Thursday to go public, revealing that it had swung into profit last year as bitcoin surged. Approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a listing would represent a landmark victory for cryptocurrency advocates, vying for mainstream endorsement for a sector which has struggled to win the trust of mainstream investors, regulators and the general public. It would pave the way for the highest-profile share listing of a company whose business is primarily focused around the trading of cryptocurrencies, and could also be seen as a tacit regulatory approval of assets traded on its platform. In its filing, Coinbase noted that it had not received approval from regulators that would allow it to trade cryptocurrencies that had been classified as securities in the United States. While bitcoin is considered a commodity by U.S. financial regulators, most other cryptoc

KARACHI: The foreign exchange reserves in the country have witnessed an increase of US$19 million in the week ending on February 19, ARY News reported quoting the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). According to the data released by the central bank, net reserves held by the SBP stood at $12,908 million. Overall liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at US$ 20.041 billion as of February 19, 2021. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,132 million. Total liquid foreign #reserves held by the country stood at US$ 20.04 billion as of February 19, 2021. For details: https://t.co/WpSgomENV3 pic.twitter.com/osEI2IJSVl — SBP (@StateBank_Pak) February 25, 2021 The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday announced that the current account deficit has reduced to US$229 million in January 2021 from US$652 million last month. Read More:  ‘Great news’: PM says Pakistan posted $447mn current account surplus in Nov Taking to Twitter, the SBP said that for the first seven months of

KARACHI: Gold prices extended a downward trend in the domestic market for the second consecutive day on Thursday as per tola price of yellow metal decreased by Rs500 to Rs110,150, ARY News reported. Sharing the price of the precious metal, All Pakistan Jewelers Manufacturers Association Chairman Muhammad Arshad said that the rate of 10 grams of gold decreased by Rs443 to Rs94,435. In the international market, gold prices fell 1% on Thursday as U.S. treasury yields remained elevated, with bullion’s safe-haven appeal also hit by bets for a faster global economic recovery. Spot gold fell 0.9% to $1,788.56 per ounce at 1306 GMT, after falling as much as 1% earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures eased 0.6% to $1,786.90 per ounce, according to Reuters. Read More: Gold prices fall in domestic market Earlier on February 24, the per tola gold price had witnessed a decrease of Rs50 to Rs110,650 in the domestic market. Sharing the price of the precious metal, All Pakistan Jewelers Manu

KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee continued to strengthen against the United States (US) dollar on Thursday as it appreciated by 30 paisa against the greenback in the interbank. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the dollar closed at Rs158.46 against the local currency as compared to yesterday’s closing rate of Rs158.76. Interbank closing #ExchangeRate for today: https://t.co/XnkWsFT9ac pic.twitter.com/0YCWrTS1vb — SBP (@StateBank_Pak) February 25, 2021 Also Read: Over 90,000 Roshan Digital Accounts opened in five months: SBP Governor The local unit has cumulatively appreciated by over Rs10 against the greenback since touching an all-time low of Rs168.43 in August last. The post Pakistani rupee strengthens against US dollar appeared first on ARY NEWS . from Business – ARY NEWS https://ift.tt/3aSJZHZ

NEW DELHI: India announced new rules on Thursday to regulate big social media firms, such as Facebook and Twitter, the latest effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to tighten control over Big Tech firms. The rules come after Twitter ignored orders to drop content on farmers’ protests, fuelling the goverment’s zeal, dating from 2018, to clamp down on dissent. The new measures will require big social media companies to set up a grievance redressal mechanism and appoint executives to coordinate with law enforcement, the government said in a news statement. The government said the guidelines in its code of digital media ethics were needed to hold social media and other companies accountable for “misuse and abuse”. Social media firms should be “more responsible and accountable,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister for information technology, told reporters in outlining the rules. A detailed version of the guidelines is to be published later and take effect three months aft

GameStop’s Frankfurt-listed shares trebled at one point on Thursday, overshooting the videogame retailer’s 100% surge on Wall Street overnight, as European retail traders joined in the fresh buying push. GameStop shares rose as much as 240% in premarket trading and were up 210% as of 0741 GMT. The surge comes after a couple of weeks that saw the shares move in relatively tighter ranges. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Whatever happens resist the urge to sell. The longer we hold the higher it goes,” said @catchme1fyoucan, one user in Italy of the retail trading platform eToro, in a discussion on GameStop. Analysts could not pinpoint one reason for the sharp move, but at least one ruled out a short squeeze that had fired the “Reddit rally” in January when amateur investors piled into stocks that hedge funds had bet against. Some Twitter users cited factors including options trading and the resignation of GameStop Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell, announced on Tuesday. The post Gam

KARACHI: In response to improved travel needs, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Wednesday announced to increase the number of its international flights, ARY News reported. According to the spokesperson of PIA, the flights will be increased for Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. The PIA spokesperson said in a statement that the national flag-carrier will operate five flights in a week between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the first phase. Read More:  PIA to cut employees to 7,500, get 6 new aircraft next year In second phase, seven flights will operate between Pakistan and Kabul on daily basis, said the spokesperson. According to the PIA schedule, the national airline will launch direct flights to Baku from March 14. The flights will be operated twice a week from Lahore. Likewise, the national flag carrier has announced to operate direct flights to Uzbekistan’s Tashkent city from March 28. The flights will be operated between Lahore and Tashkent, said the spokesperso

KARACHI: The per tola gold price on Wednesday witnessed a decrease of Rs50 to Rs110,650 in the domestic market, ARY News reported. Sharing the price of the precious metal, All Pakistan Jewelers Manufacturers Association Chairman Muhammad Arshad said that the rate of 10 grams of gold decreased by Rs43 to Rs94,864. In the international market, gold pared some losses after dipping more than 1% earlier on Wednesday, helped by dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but bullion struggled for traction as elevated U.S. Treasury yields dampened its allure as an inflation hedge. Spot gold was down 0.3% at $1,800.27 per ounce by 12:44 p.m. EST (1744 GMT), after dropping as much as 1.2% earlier in the session, according to Reuters. Read More: Gold price goes up in domestic market Earlier on February 23, the per tola gold price had registered a minimal increase of Rs50 to Rs110,750 in the domestic market. All Pakistan Jewelers Manufacturers Association Chairman Muhammad A

ISLAMABAD: Federal Energy Minister Omar Ayub Khan on Wednesday announced that four solar power projects of 250 megawatts achieved financial close, ARY News reported. Talking to social networking website, Twitter, Omar Ayub said that $148 million investment were being made in the country owing to the power projects. The minister claimed the solar power projects will produce over 945 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity annually. الحمداللہ ملکی وسائل سے بجلی پیداوار کی سمت اہم سنگل میل عبور ہوگیا آج کل 250میگاواٹ کے چار سولر پاور پراجیکٹس کا فنانشل کلوز ہوگیا ہے ان چار سولر پراجیکٹس سے ملک میں 148ملین ڈالر کی سرمایہ کاری ہورہی ہے ان کی سالانہ پیداوار 494.427گیگاواٹ ہوگی (1/2) pic.twitter.com/9KzWCGtwLg — Omar Ayub Khan (@OmarAyubKhan) February 24, 2021 One of the projects will generate electricity at a cost of Rs3.37 per unit while rest of three at a cost of Rs3.66, he added. Read More: Govt focuses on lowering power generation cost through renewable energy resources: Omar Ea

MUMBAI: India’s largest bourse shut down for nearly four hours on Wednesday due to what it said was a telecom network glitch, and its operators drew fire from traders for a lack of transparency over the problem, which they said caused “absolute havoc”. The National Stock Exchange opened around 9:15 a.m. local time as usual, but traders said prices on its main indexes stopped updating about an hour later. At 11:40 a.m., the NSE shut down completely for trading, leaving traders wondering what would happen to their open positions. The incident occurred just ahead of the monthly derivatives expiry on the last Thursday of the month, when traders close or roll over their open positions. “This was an unmitigated disaster because you need to communicate this proactively. Not one person in the market knew they would shut down the exchange,” Varun Khandelwal, director at Bullero Capital, a New Delhi-based proprietary trading firm. The first public news of the 11:40 a.m. shutdown came via s

KARACHI: The national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Wednesday announced to restore Karachi to Rahim Yar Khan flights in order to facilitate residents of both cities, ARY News reported. According to the PIA spokesperson, the national airline will operate flights on this route twice a week. The one-way fare between Karachi-Rahim Yar Khan will be Rs8,800. Besides, the national flag carrier also restored flights to Chitral which were suspended earlier due to coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, the PIA also announced restoring Lahore-Islamabad flights. The national flag carrier will operate three flights in a week on this route. Back in January, the national flag-carrier had announced to increase the number of flights between Karachi and Quetta. The PIA spokesperson had said in a statement that the national flag-carrier will operate four flights in a week between Karachi and Quetta. Read More:  PIA to cut employees to 7,500, get 6 new aircraft next year The

LONDON: Global airline industry body IATA said it would launch a COVID-19 travel pass at the end of March, bringing into use a digital system for test results and vaccine certificates which will help facilitiate international travel. IATA said on Wednesday that it was essential that governments start issuing their citizens with digital vaccination certificates which can then feed into its travel pass. “IATA is building the information infrastructure to safely re-start travel with the IATA Travel Pass. This solution will help governments, airlines and individual travelers manage vaccine or testing requirements with accurate information, secure identification and verified data. Pilot programs are underway with a growing number of partnerships,” reads a statement issued on IATA website. About IATA IATA was founded in Havana, Cuba, on 19 April 1945. It is the prime vehicle for inter-airline cooperation in promoting safe, reliable, secure and economical air services – for the benefit

ISLAMABAD: Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Dr. Reza Baqir on Wednesday said that over 90,000 Roshan Digital Accounts have been opened by Pakistani Diaspora in 97 countries during five months, ARY NEWS reported. “Roshan Digital Accounts programme is the brainchild of Prime Minister Imran Khan,” the SBP governor said adding that the prime minister wanted to make a strong relationship of Pakistanis living abroad with the country through this programme. Besides sharing the number of accounts opened through the programme, Reza Baqir said that during the past few days, the country has recently crossed the mark of US$500 million received through the digital accounts. “The investments through these accounts could now be made in Euro and British Pound after initially allowed in Dollars,” he further announced and said that the overseas Pakistanis were provided with an opportunity of better profits over investments through these accounts. He further shared that digital accounts are mo

CANBERRA: The architect of Australia’s laws forcing Google and Facebook to pay media companies for content claimed victory on Wednesday, though critics said last-minute changes to appease Facebook favoured Big Tech over smaller news outlets. After tense negotiations prompted Facebook to cut off news in the country last week, Australia offered a host of technical concessions and the social media giant said it would restore news as the revamped bill looked set to become law this week. While Facebook said its concerns had been met and opposition lawmakers warned that smaller media players may be overlooked, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chair Rod Sims said the bargaining power imbalance had been righted. “The changes the government’s done are things that either don’t matter much or are just to clarify things that, at least in Facebook’s mind, were unclear,” Sims, who helped draft the original laws, told Reuters. “Whatever they say, they need news. It keeps people on