April 03, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 14, 1428

KARACHI, April 2: About 80 to 100 investors at the Karachi Stock Exchange made what looked like a meek protest at the gates of the bourse on Monday, their major grievance being thin volumes.

Most onlookers thought that though there was lot of sound and fury, the angry investors had no feet to stand on. “Who can force either institutional or retail investors to trade in the market, if they don’t want to?” asked one man standing on the sidelines.

On Monday, trading was seen in 59 million shares, which was about a half of the 100-million average daily volume. Slogans were raised and placards carried by the demonstrators demanded reduction in CVT and other levies, which they said had increased “cost of doing business”. Protesting voices were also heard on SECP’s (show-cause) notices to 88 brokers.

Managing Director KSE, M. A. Lodhi, when contacted, played down his disappearance from the market, saying that he had taken a month’s leave “after seeking formal approval from the Board”.

Chief Manager Operations at the bourse, Haroon Askari said: “We are performing whatever is our function” and he mentioned Cash Settled Futures — a new product launched on Monday — as a good augury. He thought that the market was in a consolidation phase and could get out of the morass and recover volumes in a couple of days.

Siddiq Dalal, broker who sat on the board for two preceding years, identified political uncertainty as a major cause for low investor interest in equity trading. But for all that most analysts and brokers believe Pakistani stocks to be still trading at attractive valuations.

“Where do you get stocks giving dividend yield of 6 to 7 per cent,” said one analyst, adding that the Pakistani equities were currently at cheaper multiples of 10.5x, compared to 18x in the Indian markets and still higher p/e ratios in other Asian markets.

Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) was understood to have completed hearings of around 70 of the 88 brokers who were served notices following the forensic investigators report on the March 2005 stock crisis.

“The remaining parties would be heard in the next four to five days,” said one person familiar with the matter. “The SECP is anxious to complete hearing and clamp (petty?) fines on a few brokers” before the next hearing of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance scheduled to be held on April 10,” he assumed.