Business360

COLOMBO: Prime Minister Imran Khan has attended the Trade and Investment Conference organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) in Colombo during his two-day official visit to Sri Lanka, ARY News reported on Wednesday. Prime Minister Imran Khan, while addressing the Trade and Investment Conference in Colombo today, said that he joined the politics for the elimination of poverty. He said that he held discussions on different matters with the Sri Lankan president .  The premier said that poverty could be eliminated through investment. He said that it is necessary to end the role of the middle man to control inflation. PM Khan was of the view that China has reduced the role of the middle in businesses by using technology and brought 700 million people out of the poverty line. Read: PM Imran holds one-on-one meeting with Sri Lankan president PM Imran Khan said that Pakistan has prioritised the provision of maximum facilities to the busine

MELBOURNE: Oil prices fell in early trade on Wednesday after industry data showed U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly rose last week as a deep freeze in the southern states curbed demand from refineries that were forced to shut. Crude stockpiles rose by 1 million barrels in the week to Feb. 19, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday, against estimates for a draw of 5.2 million barrels in a Reuters poll. API data showed refinery crude runs fell by 2.2 million bpd. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 55 cents or 0.9% at $61.12 a barrel at 0136 GMT, after slipping 3 cents on Tuesday. Brent crude futures fell 38 cents, or 0.6%, to $64.99 a barrel, erasing Tuesday’s 13 cents gain. Investors will be awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Energy Information Administration later on Wednesday that crude inventories rose last week, despite the hit to shale oil production amid the unprecedented icy spell in the U.S. south. “The key question is how qu

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) launched the instant payments system ‘SARIE’, after a successful trial phase with several Saudi participating banks. According to SAMA , the 24/7 electronic payment system allows financial institutions, companies, and individuals to transfer money instantly. Commenting on the achievement, Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Fahad bin Abdullah Al-Mubarak said, “The launching of sarie system comes as part of a series of SAMA-led initiatives to promote the national payments’ ecosystem and to enhance its infrastructure, aiming to achieve financial inclusion.” “They offer secure and innovative payment solutions, meet the needs of various segments of the economy, and increase the effectiveness of the liquidity circulation in the financial system, through reducing the operational costs of cash handling, facilitating sending and receiving payments, and driving the digital transformation in the Kingdom by increasing the volume of digital financial transactions” S

SEOUL: South Korean automaker Hyundai launched its Ioniq 5 midsize crossover on Tuesday, the first in a planned family of electric vehicles (EV) that it hopes will propel it into the third rank of global EV makers by 2025. IONIQ 5 is a bold step into the brave new EV era with customizable, spacious, and welcoming interiors. The EV is more eco-friendly than ever, with materials such as eco-processed leather, recycled yarn, and bio paint. pic.twitter.com/lHfNoJQcfQ — Hyundai Worldwide (@Hyundai_Global) February 23, 2021 The company says the model is based on a new electric vehicle-only platform that uses its own battery module technology and requires fewer components than Hyundai’s existing electric cars, enabling faster production at lower cost. The launch of Ioniq 5 is the linchpin of Hyundai’s long-term goal to capture 10% of global EV sales by 2025, up from a combined market share of 7.2% for Hyundai and Kia together during the January-September period in 2020, according to

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday reserved judgment on a petition filed for hike in power tariff under fuel adjustment mechanism, ARY News reported. Tauseef Farooqi, Chairman NEPRA, heard a plea of KE to increase the price of electricity by Rs 1.71 per unit. During the hearing, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Chairman Tauseef Farooqi has directed K Electric, the primary power supplier of Karachi to improve its system, saying that the situation like the past year summers should not occur this time. K Electric officials told NEPRA that the situation will be better in the upcoming summer season as the first unit of Bin Qasim 3 Plant will be ready by May 15 and the completion of the unit will generate 450 MW of electricity. The KE officials told the meeting that the sole power supplier for the metropolis has signed a power purchase agreement with the government for an additional supply of 1400 megawatts of electricity.

LONDON: Shares in Tesla were set to plunge into the red for the year on Tuesday, hit by a broad selloff of high-flying technology stocks and the fall of bitcoin, in which the electric carmaker recently invested $1.5 billion. At 1121 GMT, Tesla was down over 6% in U.S. premarket deals after a 8.5% drop during the previous session. The firm led by Elon Musk has had a stellar ride since 2020, which it began at about $85 per share, before reaching the $900 mark on Jan. 25. Currently trading at about $673 in pre-market transactions, the stock has lost 25% from its peak, which is above the 20% level which technically defines a bear market. Bitcoin has also swung into a bear market, falling from a peak of $58,354 on Feb. 21 to a low of $45,000 earlier on Tuesday. A Germany-based trader said he was “taking chips off the table” on Tesla as its $1.5 billion investment in the cryptocurrency could “backfire now”. Among the factors contributing to the rise of the stocks is surging retail and

KARACHI: The per tola gold price on Tuesday registered a minimal increase of Rs50 to Rs110,750 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 increased by Rs43 to Rs94,950 today. Gold eased from a one-week peak on Tuesday as the dollar firmed, and held in a tight range as investors turned cautious ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress later in the day. Spot gold fell 0.1 percent to US$1,807.51 per ounce as US gold futures eased 0.1 percent to US$1,806.70. Movements in gold are indicative of a “wait and see approach”, OANDA analyst Craig Erlam was quoted as saying by Reuters report. Silver was down one percent at US$27.88 an ounce, having earlier hit a three-week peak at $28.31. Platinum fell 1.9 percent to US$1,248.06, while palladium declined 0.8 percent to US$2,377.19. Yesterday, the per