Pakistan outperforms global indexes on back of foreign participation, say analysts

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s stock markets have outperformed the global stock markets including India, China, Hong Kong, Tokyo, USA and UK during the period June 30 to December 7. Stock analyst, Zaheer Ahmed told APP that the participation of foreign investment was the main reason behind the better performance of the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE).

During June 30 and December 7, foreign investors were buyers of Rs40.66 billion and sold Rs24.89 billion worth of securities, bringing the net buying meter to a whopping Rs15.77 billion during the period, according to data maintained by the from National Clearing Company Limited.

In addition, better returns on local stocks have also attracted foreigners to cash on opportunities which they did not find in other global markets, he added. Ahmed said that aside from this, local investors had found the best avenue in the shape of Pakistan’s capital market due to consecutive decline in the interest rates.

The benchmark KSE-100 index has climbed 21.8% from 13,801.41 to 16,807.91 during the last six months. In the same way, the US S&P 500 registered an increase of 3.8%, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 5.8%, Tokyo’s NIKKEI 225 was up 5.8%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 14.1% but China’s Shanghai Composite was down of 7.4%.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2012.