Tuesday was the second consecutive day when all bourses in the country dipped down after the removal of ‘floor’ mechanism on the order of SECP. Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) again Tuesday witnessed some panic trading activities after yesterday tumbled and shed 372.21 points, surpassing 2.21 points compared to Monday business while the Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) also recording 5 percent lower locks sent the trading suspended whereas analysts foresee that the market would fall further over the next few days. KSE bourse was opened with a negative note, which remained continue all along the day, as there was no news regarding market supporting fund. The wave of uncertainty prevailed throughout the day investors tried their best to sell their assets on throw-away prices but there were hardly any buyers who willing purchase shares despite their lowest values. The bearish phenomenon yesterday had pulled down the market from 9000 psychological barrier but it seems that within few days the b...

The Karachi stock market witnessed a sluggish trading session on the first day of the week Monday as investors went for selling activities in across the board stocks after the ‘floor’ was lifted, analysts said.They said after three and a half month half months the index floor was removed and the index lost 370 points as the market opened without funds to bailout the capital market while investor’s were concerned over falling sentiments on probable broker defaults and awaited Sindh High Court’s decision regarding outstanding CFS position. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share index shed a massive 370.00 points to close at 8,817.10 points as compared with 9,187.10 points traded in the previous session. The KSE 30 index lost 493.53 points and closed at 9,434.80 points as compared to 9,928.33 points of the previous session. KMI 30 index also declined by 540.50 points and closed at 10,683.68 points as against 11,224.18 points of the previous session. The market turnover made substantia...

A division bench of Sindh High Court (SHC) Monday issued notices to all the three bourses, National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL), Securities and exchange commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the finance ministry on two identical petitions filed by United Bank Limited (UBL) and IGI Investment Banks Limited challenging the impugned directives of NCCPL. The petitioners claimed in the petitions that NCCPL (respondent no 2) has developed and established an automated platform under the name and style of Continuous Funding System Market. This system is referred to as CFS Mark-II aimed to provide funds to members of all three stock exchanges in Pakistan on a centralised basis along with comprehensive risk management.The petitions said the CFS Mark II System is designed to provide financing to brokers and their clients to purchase securities. Such funding is arranged by NCCPL by raising finances from CFS Financiers such as the Petitioner.The petitioners have challenged the of impug...

Islamabad: They call it the coming bloodbath. The decision by Pakistan's stock market regulator to lift an artificial floor at the Karachi stock exchange (KSE) on Monday marks the removal of a five-month-old anomaly. The KSE has been surrounded with controversy over this issue, with investors and brokers opposing the lifting of the floor and the government determined to remove it as early as possible. When the floor was introduced last August, the idea was to prevent the KSE's representative 100 index from falling further after suffering considerable losses. But the floor ended unexpectedly drying up the trading on the Karachi stock exchange. Some gurus have gone as far as to predict that the KSE-100 index will fall anywhere up to 20 per cent while others forecast a significantly high number as a new regime without any restrictions comes into play. It is impossible to know how much the index will fall. But forecasts of a bloodbath essentially suggest that the losses will be con...

The Karachi Stock Exchange has sought further time from Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to remove the floor placed under equity prices. The SECP had asked all three stock exchanges of the country on Thursday to remove the floor on Monday, December 15. Sources said the KSE had communicated to the SECP that without resolving the problem of outstanding CFS positions of close to Rs 11 billion, removing the floor would cause many brokers to default. However, the SECP did not respond positively to the request. On the other hand, the NCCPL has also turned down the request of KSE for rolling over of the CFS positions for ninety days. The KSE board of directors had requested the NCCPL to roll over the Rs 11 billion outstanding positions in CFS. According to a notification issued by the KSE, the floor will be removed by December 15, 2005, Monday, with normal trading parameters including application of standard up-side and down-side 5 percent circuit breakers rule in place. All thr...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has told stock markets to remove the floors placed on their indices from December 15, more than three months after they were initially imposed to restore confidence in a market battered by political upheaval. “The continuing restriction on the trade prices of the securities has adversely affected the ability of the market participants to manage their respective investments,” the regulating authority said in a statement on Thursday. “Despite best efforts, the market support fund, and other instruments like ‘put option’ could not be brought into operations so as to provide a soft landing,” it said, adding it found no reasons for the restrictions to continue. The regulator has also barred the exchanges and their boards from closing the bourses, restricting prices of securities, or interfering in the normal operations of the exchanges for 90 days. “It is in the public interest to allow the securities markets to function without any hindrance in order ...

The SECP and stock market’s guns are silent for now since chairman of the apex regulatory body left Saturday’s (Dec 06) meeting inconclusive with his last words on record that he would himself issue directives on floor in a day or two. “No communication has been built so far from both sides of the fence i.e. (1) Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SEC), and (2) the officials of local bourses, and none of them tried to approach each others on the issue of floor,” officials of two sides verified. SECP officials, however, endorsed that directives to end the floor-price rule on Dec 15 would be sent to the three local bourses last by Friday, Dec 12. “The SECP does not work on government holidays and the issuance of directive would not be delayed beyond Dec 12,” they reiterated.The staff of the Commission would resume office on coming Thursday, Dec 11, after celebrating Eid, it was learnt.“Local bourses i.e. Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad do not have powers more than the apex re...