Karachi Stock Exchange

The Karachi Stock Exchange or KSE is a stock exchange located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Founded in 1947, it is Pakistan's largest and oldest stock exchange, with many Pakistani as well as overseas listings. Its current premises are situated on Stock Exchange Road, in the heart of Karachi's Business District.

History

Karachi Stock Exchange is the biggest and most liquid exchange in Pakistan. It was declared the “Best Performing Stock Market of the World for the year 2002”. As of Sept25, 2009, 654 companies were listed with a market capitalization of Rs. 2.806 trillion (US$ 33.81 billion) having listed capital of Rs. 705.873 billion (US$ 10.615 billion). The KSE 100TM Index closed at 9359 on Sept 29, 2009

Business

Trading

The exchange has pre-market sessions from 09:15am to 09:30am and normal trading sessions from 09:30am to 03:30pm. It is the second oldest stock exchange in South Asia. The karachi stock exchange has undergone a considerable deal of downturn partly due to global financial crisis and partly on account of domestic troubles. It remained suspended in excess of 4 months and resumed normal trading only on December 15, 2008. The KSE 100 Index and KSE 30 Index after hitting the low around mid january has now rebounced and recovered 20-25% till March 12 2009.

Growth

The KSE is the biggest and most liquid exchange in Pakistan and in 2002 it was declared as the “Best Performing Stock Market of the World” by Business Week. As of December 20, 2007, 671 companies were listed with the market capitalization of Rs. 4364.312 billion (US$ 73 Billion) having listed capital of Rs. 717.3 billion (US$ 12 billion). On December 26, 2007, the KSE 100 Index reached its highest value ever and closed at 14,814.85 points.

Foreign buying interest had been very active on the KSE in 2006 and continued in 2007. According to estimates from the State Bank of Pakistan, foreign investment in capital markets total about US$523 Million. According to a research analyst in Pakistan, around 20pc of the total free float in KSE-30 Index is held by foreign participants.

KSE has seen some fluctuations since the start of 2008. One reason could be that it is the election year in Pakistan, and stocks are expected to remain dull. KSE has set an all time high of 15,000 points, before settling around the 14,000 mark.

Karachi stock exchange Board of Directors has recently (2007) announced plans to construct a 40 story high rise KSE building, as a new direction for future investment.

Disputes between investors and members of the Exchange are resolved through deliberations of the Arbitration Committee of the Exchange.

KSE began with a 50 shares index. As the market grew a representative index was needed. On November 1, 91 the KSE-100 was introduced and remains to this day the most generally accepted measure of the Exchange. Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index (KSE-100 Index) is a benchmark used to compare prices overtime, companies with the highest market capitalization are selected. To ensure full market representation, the company with the highest market capitalization from each sector is also included.

In 1995 the need was felt for an all share index to reconfirm the KSE-100 and also to provide the basis of index trading in future. On August the 29th, 1995 the KSE all share index was constructed and introduced on September 18, 1995.

2008 Karachi Stock Exchange Crisis

# April 20 : Karachi Stock Exchange achieved a major milestone when KSE-100 Index crossed the psychological level of 15,000 for the first time in its history and peaked 15,737.32 on 20 April, 2008. Moreover, the increase of 7.4 per cent in 2008 made it the best performer among major emerging markets.
# May 23: Record high inflation in the month of May, 2008 resulted in the unexpected increase in the interest rates by State Bank of Pakistan which eventually resulted in sharp fall in Karachi Stock Exchange.
# July 17 :Angry investors attacked the Karachi Stock Exchange in protest at plunging Pakistani share prices.
# July 16 : KSE-100 Index dropped one-third from an all-time high hit in April, 2008 as rising pressure on shaky Pakistan's coalition government to tackle Taliban militants exacerbates concern about the country's economic woes.
# August 18: KSE 100 Index rose more than 4% after the announcement of the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf but Credit Suisse Group said that Pakistan's Post-Musharraf rally in Stock Exchange will be short-lived because of a rising fiscal deficit and runaway inflation.
# August 28 :Karachi Stock Exchange set a floor for stock prices to halt a plunge that has wiped out $36.9 billion of market value since April.
# December 15: Trading resumes after the removal of floor on stock prices that was set on August 28 to halt sharp falls.