May 10, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1429

KARACHI, May 9: As the bears prowl all over the stock exchange, having clawed 10 per cent off the value of shares in fewer than fifteen trading sessions, investors are at the edge of their nerves.

On Thursday, the market did not open at its usual time and as the investors waited with bated breath for over half an hour, smelling something fishy, the KSE system department comforted them by attributing the delay to a normal system glitch. That over, the trading began.

Suddenly panic spread as investors looking out of the hallways, windows and the sidewalks of the Karachi Stock Exchange’s parking lot, witnessed a fleet of Mercedes, occupied by foreigners and escorted by noticeably large convoy of police and law enforcement agencies enter the gates. The word went quickly around: “Some ‘goras’ have come with police to arrest a broker or two”. Some even named names. It took some time for the panic-prone investors to get to the knowledge that the foreigners were no other than US Ambassador Anne W Patterson, accompanied by US Consul General Kay L Anske and Press Attaché Elizabeth O Colton, who were on a scheduled visit to the Exchange.

Of course, no one was arrested, instead, in her address to the KSE Board the US ambassador was lavish in her praise for the Pakistan’s capital markets, which she said was blessed with ‘huge” upside potential.

But such are the frayed nerves of investors, whose loss knows no end.