What drives volatility in foreign exchange market in Pakistan? This paper undertakes an analysis of modelling exchange rate volatility in Pakistan by potential macroeconomic fundamentals well-known in the economic literature. For this monthly data on Pak Rupee exchange rates in the terms of major currencies (US Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar and Japanese Yen) and macroeconomics fundamentals is taken from April, 1982 to November, 2011. The results show that the PKR-USD exchange rate volatility is influenced by real output volatility, foreign exchange reserves volatility, inflation volatility and productivity volatility. The PKR-GBP exchange rate volatility is influenced by foreign exchange reserves volatility and terms of trade volatility. The PKR-CAD exchange rate volatility is influenced by terms of trade volatility. The findings of this paper reveal that exchange rate volatility in Pakistan results from real shocks than nominal shocks.

This article explores the effects of macroeconomic news on Pak rupee's exchange rates. For this purpose, it employs GARCH models by using realtime data on macroeconomic news and exchange rates. The results exhibit that daily Pak rupee exchange rates dynamics are linked to macroeconomic fundamentals. Both foreign and domestic macroeconomic news announcements significantly affect Pak rupee exchange rates. The exchange rate returns and volatility of Pak rupee immediately adjust to most of the foreign and domestic macroeconomic news. Most of the US and PAK domestic macroeconomic news immediately affect PKR/USD exchange rates as compared to the effect of other foreign and domestic macroeconomic news on other Pak rupee exchange rates. Finally, the article shows that Pak rupee exchange rate returns and their volatilities are responsive to foreign and domestic macroeconomic news announcements with different magnitudes for all the currency pairs. These findings suggest that the behaviour of PAK rupee exchange rate appears to be consistent with the models of exchange rate determination and the monetary authority's reaction function.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the role of telecommunications service providers in promoting connectivity among people and devices. Through its deployment, the IoT is fostering digitization, technological innovation, and advancement in the telecom industry. Telecom businesses are primarily engaging in IoT platforms through either international collaborations with cloud service providers or local infrastructure deployments. In developing countries, businesses are adopting IoT technology, which is a newly emerging phenomenon. From sim and data sales to new IoT-enabled offerings, telecoms are diversifying their businesses and services. Individuals and businesses can use their services to host IoT devices, applications, and solutions on the IoT platform. This paper discusses IoT technology in telecom in context of a Telecom Company “China Mobile Pakistan” in developing country Pakistan, who is boosting connectivity among people and devices through the deployment of IoT platform OneNET. Through qualitative case study, this paper documents ecosystem, value chain, features, architecture, and functions of IoT platform OneNET. It emphasizes the importance of an IoT platform that aids management, as well as university students, hardware providers, solution providers, equipment suppliers, local application developers, and incubators, in comprehending the complexities of IoT technology for telecoms.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the performance of Islamic and conventional stocks listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange by using both parametric and non-parametric approaches. The motivation is to do risk-return analysis of Islamic stock prices and conventional stock prices.Design/methodology/approachIt uses various measures of performance, e.g. Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, Jensen's alpha, beta, generalized auto-regressive conditional heteroskedasticity and stochastic dominance. Using the Karachi Meezan Index-30 (KMI-30) and the Karachi Stock Exchange Index-30 (KSE-30) as proxies for Islamic and conventional stock prices, respectively, it examines the performance of Islamic and conventional stocks. The daily data of KMI-30 and KSE-30, covering period from June 9, 2009 to June 20, 2020 are used.FindingsThe results show that the overall KMI-30 outperforms the KSE-30. The returns of the KMI-30 are greater than the KSE-30. However, the risk and volatility of the KMI-30 and KSE-30 are similar. Further, the KMI-30 has higher excess returns per unit of total risk than the KSE-30. But both indexes have similar excess returns per unit of systematic risk. Moreover, the KMI-30 returns have stochastically dominance over the KSE-30 returns. These results reveal that the Islamic index performs better than the conventional index.Practical implicationsThe findings provide several practical implications in financial and investment decisions making by investors, managers and policymakers such as strategies for asset allocation and investment. Further, in risk management, it provides guidance for allocating portfolios and managing risk. The investment in Islamic stocks may mitigate potential risk within asset portfolios.Originality/valueThis research is unique in its approach to the analysis of the performance comparison of conventional and Islamic stock by using comprehensive parametric and non-parametric estimation techniques. Such research has not been undertaken in the Pakistan's equity market since.

This paper presents an exploratory case study of the Internet of things in telecommunications to analyze IoT technology in the telecom sector. It examines the IoT value in telecom and discusses the role of telecom operators across the value chain. It also presents a case analysis of IoT adoption in an emerging market of Pakistan to explore the IoT landscape in Pakistan and analyzes the IoT market positioning among telecom operators. It presents the business models and strategies which the telecom operators are following and analyzes the cost and benefits of IoT technology. It also discusses the IoT challenges faced by telecom operators during the adoption of IoT. In an emerging country like Pakistan, telecoms are adopting Internet of things technology, a novel, and real-time phenomenon. They are considering IoT technology as a new business opportunity in emerging markets, with the potential to be utilized as a new source of revenue. Telecoms are focusing on testing their roles in different areas of the IoT value chain. Their primary focus still remains basic connectivity which is evolved into smart connectivity. Telecoms are embracing their resources and capabilities across the IoT value chain, from connectivity to partnership, with innovative, value-added services. They are moving up to the IoT value chain by evolving further as an enabler for devices and enterprise-to-enterprise (E2E) solutions. They are developing partnerships with enterprises for providing various applications, service delivery, and system integration.