The Karachi Stock Market recovered well since January 2007 after a lacklustre performance during the first half of the current fiscal year. The KSE-100 index rose by 12.3 percent during the first nine months of FY07 ending March 30 to close at 11,272 points from 9,989 at the end of FY06.
For comparison, the index during the corresponding period of last year surged by 54.1 percent reaching 11486 over 7451 at the end of FY05. Average daily trading volumes during nine months of FY07 almost halved to 181million shares as against 348 million shares registered previously.
Jawad Haleem, a research analyst, Atlas Capital Markets said that as far as the third quarter alone was concerned, it was the best during this fiscal year as the benchmark KSE-100 index saw a 12 percent growth compared to a decline of 4.5 percent during the second quarter of FY07. The growth was 5.2 percent during the first quarter. Average daily volume and value also stood at their best during the quarter at 204 million and Rs 23 billion respectively.
At the same time, however, a comparison with the same quarter of the previous two years shows that it was by far the worst performing quarter. During the third quarter of FY05 and FY06, the index surged by 24.9 percent and 20.2 percent respectively with an average daily turnover of 603 million and 454 million shares.
Comparing the performance of the KSE-100 Index with the regional markets reveals some interesting points. Apart from Nikkei, the KSE-100 under-performed all the other markets during the nine months of FY07. However, during the third quarter of this year, it out-performed the rest with the exception of Shanghai. It was this quarter during which all the markets, except Nikkei, touched their all-time high levels.