Political unrest has triggered a mass evacuation in Pakistani stocks, causing hundreds of distressed local investors, many who have lost their life savings, to smash the windows of country's main bourse amid violent protests on the streets.
The Karachi Stock Exchange was not long ago a magnet for Western investors looking to escape the volatile stock markets in the developed world in favour of an equity adventure on the new frontier.
But Erik Nilsson, senior international economist at Scotia Capital said Thursday, "in view of the political uncertainties that are so prevalent in Pakistan, it's astonishing that there is any equity market left."
The benchmark KSE100 Index fell for a fifteenth-straight session Thursday, dropping 278.96 points, or 2.7 per cent, to 10,212.92. The index is down 35 per cent from its record high of 15,676.34 on April 18. The decline has erased the gains of the past year, taking the index back to levels last seen at the beginning of 2007.
Nilsson said investors from developed markets had been attracted to the Pakistani bourse amid a general broad-based enthusiasm for Asian equities.
