Stocks zoom to historic high

Buoyed by an emphatic win by Nawaz Sharif,Pakistani stock market Monday surged to a record high after crossing 20,000-level for the first time in history and added nearly Rs 10,000 crore to the investors’ wealth.

The Karachi Stock Exchange’s benchmark index KSE-100 rose to its all-time high of 20,309.36 points Monday morning with a gain of 1.8 per cent of 359 points,as the general elections held over the weekend delivered a clear mandate for the return of Sharif as the country’s next Prime Minister.

Although Pakistan’s share market is small when compared to its Asian peers including that of India,the total wealth of its investors,measured in terms of total market value of all listed shares,rose Monday by about

Rs 10,000 crore to close to Rs 5 lakh crore.

There are only 569 listed companies on the Karachi Stock Exchange,as against about 5,000 in the Indian stock market,where total investor wealth is close to

Rs 70 lakh crore.