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The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)

The Karachi Stock Exchange, for short is known as the KSE which is the Pakistani stock exchange placed in Karachi in the Sindh area. It was established in 1947, and it is the biggest and oldest Pakistan shares exchange where not only many Pakistan companies but also a number of foreign companies are also listed. Nowadays, its offices are situated on Stock Exchange Road, in the center of the Business District of Karachi. At the end of 2009, many companies were listed; their number reached the amount of 654 with a complete market capitalization of more than Rs. 2.500 trillion, around 30 billion of US dollars. The capital listed was of more than Rs. 700.000 billion; this means around 10.000 billion of US dollars. It was declared in 2002 as the best performing exchange market of the world.
The KSE is considered one of the most liquid trading places in Pakistan. The Karachi Stock Exchange is known as the second oldest shares exchange in South Asia. The trading market has a pre-market opening session at 9.15 for 15 minutes. Its normal trading sessions are from 09.30 in the morning until 03.30 in the afternoon. The Karachi stock exchange has changed considerably because of the global financial crisis and partly because of the political Pakistan situation.

The KSE Index after being very low around middle January had then increased again and recovered from 20 to 25% until March 2009. It stayed suspended in excess of the increase for 4 months and resumed a normal trading trend only on December. In December 2009, more than six hundred companies were listed with a market capitalization of more than Rs. 2.500 trillion, around thirty billion US dollars.
The listed capital had the value of about 700 billion Rs around, twelve billion US dollars. The highest peak of the KSE was reached on late December 2007 when the stock exchange index arrived very near to 15.000 points. The Pakistani stock exchange of Karachi is considered one of the best and profitable stock market, and it was announced as the better performing share market of the world by Business Week, in 2002. The interest of foreign buyers had been very lively on the KSE and according to the estimates of the Pakistan’s state bank.

KSE Market Sector Weighting Banks                              31.7% Chemicals                       16.6% Personal Goods             14.5% Financial Services         13.3% Oil and Gas                       6.4% Construction/Materials     4.9% Electricity                           4.7% Non Life Insurance            1.7% Support Services              1.6% Equity Investment              1.1% All Others                            3.4%

Companies are Removed and Added Regularly

The investment coming from abroad in the Pakistani money markets has surpassed the amount of 500 Million of US dollars. As far as financial analysts are concerned, in Pakistan the percentage of free float kept by foreign companies in the KSE-30 index is around 20 %. Board of Directors of the KSE in 2007 had designed to build a skyscraper 40 storey high in Karachi for a future speculation investment.

The story of the Karachi Stock Exchange began with a 50 stock index only, then the market started to enlarge and new companies wanted to enter in the share’s market. In 1991 the KSE presented the KSE-100 and it was considered since then an accepted measurement for the exchange market. Now it is an important benchmark for the Asian and European stock exchanges.