2 April, 2005	Saturday	22 Safar 1426

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, April 1: Economic and financial experts have demanded complete ban on speculations for the stability of stock market of Pakistan. They were participating in a discussion on the trends in stock markets and their implications on national economy at the monthly meeting of the Hamdard Thinkers Forum held at the Hamdard Centre here on Friday with MNA Bushra Rehman in the chair.

Punjab University former vice-chancellor Dr Rafiq Ahmad said the government should set up a task force comprising economic experts from the public and private sectors to find out the causes of the recent crash in the stock markets of the country, particularly the Karachi Stock Exchange, where the index had a steep fall from over 10,000 points to about 7,500 points causing heavy loss to the small investors.

He said the task force should give special thought to put an end to the speculations. The stock exchanges should start a public education programme for the awareness of investors to guide them on investment issues. There should also be a system of continuous monitoring of stock markets for the benefit of the investors and the public at large.

He said the people had a right to know what was the share of the stock markets in the industrial and economic development of the country.

A few groups of big brokers and speculators who were members of the mafia that manipulates stock markets should be exposed, he added. Lahore Stock Exchange former chairmen Group Captain Naeem A. Khan (retired) and Dr Yasser Mahmood were specially invited by the forum to throw light on the rise in index of KSE witnessed till March 16 and then steep fall that had continued during the past two weeks. Other members of the forum, including Engineer Salimullah Khan, Tanvir Tabish, Samar Jamil, Justice Nasira Javid Iqbal (retired), also participated in the discussion.

Group Captain Khan said stock markets had made a great contribution in providing finance for the industrialization which had a few industries on its inception. Now, he said, the number of listed companies on KSE was over 700 and many of them had billions of rupees of investment. These companies also included the recently privatized industries.

He said with KSE index rising to 10,656 a fortnight ago the investment figures had gone up to $48 billion. The market had dropped by 29 per cent to 7,566 points after March 16 that had caused heavy loss to the investors.

He said the government should find out the causes of the crash. The stock markets index generally rise and fall due to various factors, including national and international events.

He said the KSE index had risen from 5,000 to 10,000 points without any hurdle that prompted a large number of such people to invest in the shares who had neither knowledge nor capability to enter the stock market. They were the people responsible for the steep fall of the stock market, as they could not hold their investments.

He said commission agents, the investors with mala fide intentions and also the organizers of the stock markets were responsible for the crash. Greed to accumulate wealth and the lack of moral values and business ethics were other factors for deteriorating the stock market situation.