KARACHI: The board of directors of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is to meet at an extraordinary meeting on Monday to consider direct involvement of FIA in the affairs of the exchange.

A source at the exchange on condition of anonymity stated that big brokers were throwing their weight behind the board to demand that the FIA first consult and take the chief regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), into confidence before moving against a stockbroker or his firm and its officials.

The ongoing rout at the PSX which has wiped out almost 15 per cent from the KSE-100 index from its peak has thrown investors into a state of panic.

Although the slide in the value of shares at PSX has little to do with notices and investigations into stock brokerages and arrest of some officials of a brokerage firm and more to the meltdown in global markets due to slump in international oil prices and the troubled Chinese economy, some market participants were trying to pile the blame for the PSX plunge on FIA’s actions.

But a market watcher wondered if anything was to come out of the PSX board room on Monday except perhaps sound and fury. “The law is likely to take its own course,” he reckoned.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2016