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KSE sets floor on stock index

KARACHI: The Pakistani stock exchange authorities on Wednesday set a floor of 9,144 points for the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) index for today (Thursday), following heavy losses in recent days, the exchange said.

The stock market has fallen for six consecutive sessions since August 20 and has lost 43 percent since hitting a record high of 15,739.28 points on April 21.

“The continuous sharp decline in share prices can have implications for the wider financial system,” the board of directors of the KSE said in a statement.

“With this in mind, the board decided to place a floor, based on the closing prices of securities on Wednesday,” it said.

“The individual security prices will remain free to trade within the normal circuit breaker limits, but not below the floor price level as mentioned,” it said.

“It’s going to be a good news at least for a short time because the market was constantly going down,” said Shuja Rizvi, director at Capital One Equities.

“In the meantime, the authorities should work on long-term measures to boost sentiments,” he said.

The measure would remain in place until further notice, it said.

Pakistan’s stock market, which rose for six consecutive years from 2002, and was one of the top performers in Asia during that period, has skidded 36 percent this year due to political tension and a shaky economy.

The index fell more than 4 percent to its lowest level in more than two years in intra-day trading on Wednesday and ended 3.03 percent lower at 9,144.93 points. reuters

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