KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) 100-index for the first time in the history crossed 41000 points in early trade on Monday, climbing to all time high level.
Out of 371 companies called for trading, some 268 companies were gainers while rest of them were on the losing side.
The main reason behind the upsurge was the joint parties meeting called by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad today, showing unity among the political parties against the uncalled for aggression from India.
The unity shown by the political parties gave positive signals to investors that government would not remain quite and would lift the issue of Indian army‘s cruelty in held Kashmir.
Another positive aspect which boosted the sentiment was the interest of Shanghai Stock Exchange in buying shares of Pakistan Stock Exchange.
According to a PSX official, some 17 companies have shown interest in buying shares of Pakistan Stock Exchange. Soon the due diligence process would commence and final short listing would be announced before the end of this month.
The Pakistani bourse has been searching for a strategic investor and in July invited companies to show interest in buying a stake of up to 40 percent.
Pakistani shares are trading at an all-time high, helped by an improving economy. The bourse’s market capitalization from 558 listed companies is $77 billion.
In recent years the main Pakistan bourses were demutualised to weaken the influence of stockbrokers and deepen the investor base. The demutualisation plan required the bourse to find a strategic investor to buy a stake of 15 percent to 40 percent.
Pakistani officials said the investor would have to buy at least 15 percent but no higher than 40 percent. If the sale involves a stake of anything in between, the bourse would have to sell the balance to other institutions to meet the 40 percent cap.
Japan’s Nikkei newspaper first reported the interest of Shanghai Stock Exchange late on Sunday.—Agencies
