KARACHI, Aug 18: The stock market on Monday welcomed President Pervez Musharraf’s resignation amid buying euphoria, lifting the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share index by 4.49 per cent or 460.91 points at 10,719.62 on the perception that the protracted political uncertainty will end after a prolonged power struggle.

Stocks, therefore, virtually raced towards their pre-reaction levels on heavy buying, triggered by his exit after a long struggle to stay in power despite heavy odds leading to political uncertainty as reflected in a sharp fall of 37 per cent in the share values since the national elections.

“Bulls were on the rampage after the news of the president’s exit trickled in heralding the end of the protracted uncertainty,” analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali said, adding buying euphoria reflects that “the democracy has at last won.”“The market witnessed an all-round optimism as was reflected by a recovery of 1.6 per cent in the value of the rupee at Rs76.50 in official trading and Rs75.70 in the kerb,” another leading analyst Ahsan Mehanti said, adding it had been a hostage to negative political undercurrent and from onward as a free market it has reasons to rise above the current lows.

Although the market’s initial reaction to the president was terribly bullish, its future direction will be guided how the contenders of power or coalition partners manage their post-Musharraf economy and financial turmoil, analyst Tabish Hasan observes.

He said much of the future market outlook would depend how contenders of power take fresh initiatives to boost economy, lure back massively mauled local investors and open way for foreign investors to have fresh stake in the share business on the perception that sanity would prevail on the political front.

The KSE 100-share index recovered 4.49 per cent or 460.91 points at 10,719.62, adding a massive Rs137.212 billion in the market capital at Rs3,332.395. Its