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LAHORE: The Board of Directors of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), in its meeting held on Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Lahore, recommended a final cash dividend of Rs. 7.50 per share (equivalent to 75%) for the year ended June 30, 2024. During the meeting, the Board also approved the Annual Accounts for FY 2023–24, marking a historic achievement for the Company. SNGPL recorded its highest-ever profitability, with a remarkable profit before tax around Rs. 30 billion. Profit after tax stood at an impressive Rs 19 billion, translating into Earnings Per Share (EPS) of Rs 29.92 — a significant…

ISLAMABAD: In a bold move to streamline digital payments across the country, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Monday that the scope of digital wallets would be dramatically expanded, bringing provincial systems into a unified national framework. Speaking at a ceremony honoring those who made significant contributions to the success of the Prime Minister’s Ramazan Relief Package, Sharif touted the power of modern payment methods in transforming fund transfers, making them not only faster and more transparent but also preserving the dignity of recipients. “Through digital wallets, 79% of the relief funds were distributed seamlessly and without a hitch,” he…

This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters hereGood morning and welcome to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter: China seeks to reassure the public about the economyWhy Trump can’t build iPhones in the US An op-ed on the Indus Waters Treaty and Indian securityWe start in Beijing, where China’s top economic officials yesterday used a press conference to reassure the public about the state of the economy amid a trade war with the US.…

Chinese researchers have cracked a barrier to the home-grown production of advanced chips by building an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source platform that operates at internationally competitive parameters, according to a research paper.The team, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, was led by Lin Nan, previously head of light source technology at ASML in the Netherlands.ASML, the world’s only manufacturer of EUV machines – which are critical for producing chips with nodes below seven nanometres – has been prohibited from selling its most advanced models to China since 2019, thanks to pressure from…

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani expressed on Monday his government’s willingness to build a “strategic partnership” with China, a key backer of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad.A foreign ministry statement said that Shaibani met the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, at UN headquarters in New York, where he had been representing Syria at a session of the Security Council.In the meeting with Beijing’s envoy, Shaibani said Syria’s new government was seeking to “strengthen relations with China” and that the two countries “will work together to build a long-term strategic partnership in the near future”, according to the statement.Along…

Boeing shares should soar “higher and higher,” Jim Cramer said Monday, citing some of the company’s strengths that were highlighted in a new analyst report. The news Jim’s outlook comes as Bernstein on Sunday upgraded Boeing to an outperform buy and raised its target price on the stock to $218 per share from $181. “Boeing is now making the progress it needed for the growth trajectory we expected before the Alaska door plug accident in January 2024,” the analysts wrote. They said Boeing’s commercial aircraft should be on a better path than 2023, though they’re not assuming all risks are gone.…

Is the tide starting to turn for Apple ? The latest commentary from White House officials and Wall Street analysts suggests a path forward for the iPhone-maker. The already troubled Club stock this year fell off a cliff a session after President Donald Trump ‘s April 2 announcement of sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs that he called “liberation day.” Shares have been clawing their way back from their 2025 lows on April 8 of under $170 apiece. Apple got a reprieve on April 9 when the worst of Trump’s sweeping global tariffs went on a 90-day hold at 10%, excluding China, which…

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Market update: Stocks fell to start this busy week of corporate earnings and economic data. This comes after a roughly 4.5% rally in the S & P 500 last week that pushed the market to its highest levels since the tariffs announcement on April 2. The rally also pushed the S & P Oscillator into overbought territory with a reading of 5.22%. The last time the market was overbought was the…

Elon Musk may skirt more than $2 billion in possible financial liabilities by exercising his influence over the federal government, a new report from Senate Democratic committee staffers out Monday alleges.Musk’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ has brought sweeping changes to Washington with its slash-and-burn campaign to gut agencies and purge the federal workforce. President Donald Trump has avidly supported Musk’s cuts.As he appears poised to step back from his DOGE work in the coming weeks, Democrats are accusing the world’s richest person of using his influence to “evade oversight, derail investigations, and make litigation disappear whenever he so chooses—on his…

Indus Motor Company (IMC) posted a profit-after-tax (PAT) of Rs16.55 billion in the first nine months of the financial year 2024-25, significantly up by 75% as compared to the same period last year. The company shared this development in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as well as in a separate statement on Monday. The company had recorded a PAT of Rs9.41 billion in 9MFY24. The earnings per share (EPS) of the company stood at Rs210.62, compared to Rs119.67 from corresponding previous year. It declared a third interim cash dividend of Rs50 per share, compared to Rs34 per…