LONDON, March 2: As fresh anxiety erupted about the health of the world’s major markets including the London Stock Exchange (LSE), market watchers here appeared somewhat reluctant to comment on reports reaching here from Pakistan that the country’s largest commercial bank, the UBL had initiated a process for offloading on the LSE part of the 44pc of the shares of the bank now owned by the government.

According to London’s weekly The Business, the ball is being set to roll by the bank on a £1.1bn ($2.2bn) listing this month. The actual listing will take place in May or June.

Market watchers on Friday warned of several more bumpy days to come, pointing to the renewed erosions in stock markets globally on Thursday. The Shanghai stock market slipped an additional 2.9 per cent. The London FTSE index closed down 55.5 points or 1.5pc. The Dow later recouped most of its early losses as some more encouraging economic data was released and closed down 34.29 points. But fears remain that there may be worse to come. All the markets have fallen significantly during the course of the week.

However, optimists among the market watchers believe that what they called the temporary correction phase would eventually come to an end and the world markets would rebound in a few weeks’ time and therefore, they felt Pakistan would be well advised not to be discouraged by what is happening now but to keep its sights fixed to the bigger picture in the longer term.

The Business said UBL is all set to mobilise between £200m and £500m by unloading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) part of the 44pc of its shares now being held by the government.

Last month, the bank held what is called in financial circles’ parlance, a beauty parade of leading investment banks for the float and is set to appoint an adviser by the end of the month. Merrill Lynch is tipped as the favourite, although Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are also in the running.

Pakistani financial institutions with a combined market value of £4bn are looking to come to London over the next 18 months. The others include the Habib Bank (£1bn), which is majority owned by the Aga Khan, National Bank of Pakistan (£1.7bn), and the Bank of Punjab, which is on the Karachi Stock Exchange (£128m).

Pakistan has launched an ambitious sell-off of state assets beginning with his OGDC listing in London in December last year. Starting at over £19 the OGDC shares price went up to over £21 by late January but dipped back to a little over £19 in February as both the half yearly and interim reports of the company did not contain any good news. Market watchers, however, said the dip was temporary they expected the prices to rebound. Earlier, the Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) another leading Pakistani bank had mobilised about $150m by floating a small portion of its shares at the LSE.

Pakistan is also planning the international listing of the Kot Addu power company, a sell-off of stakes in the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC), and Pakistan State Oil.

The Business said Pakistan’s reforms have lagged slightly behind those of India. The country is expected to see GDP growth of 6.6pc this year, compared to 11pc for its booming neighbour.

It said companies from India and Pakistan are increasingly targeting London’s investors, following the trail blazed by Russian and Kazakhstan companies in recent years. It further underlines the capital’s importance as a centre for global finance.