By DPA,
Karachi : Pakistani stocks maintained an upward momentum Wednesday, mainly due to strong measures the government introduced to stem a prolonged sharp slide, traders said.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index leaped by another 2.5 percent, or 307 points, to close at 12,430 after rising an historic 8.6 percent Tuesday, following emergency stability actions taken by the state watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
The recovery was good news for the main Karachi bourse, which had lost around 24 percent since the beginning of the year on deepening political instability, economic woes and war threats by neighbouring Afghanistan over insurgent infiltrations.
The SECP’s aggressive steps include the slapping of a restricting limit of one percent on falling stocks from the previous five percent while, at the same time, doubling the upward limit to 10 percent.
But the traders said such artificial designs could only provide a temporary respite to the market, which has been hobbled by weak fundamentals from all fronts since the Feb 18 general election.
Pakistan’s political scene has been mired in lengthy infighting within a fractured parliamentary coalition over how to reinstate 60 deposed supreme court judges fired by embattled President Pervez Musharraf last year under an emergency order Nov 3.