The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance here on Thursday was surprised to hear that the traded volume of shares at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) remained much lower as compared to other bourses in the region during July 2010-June 2011.
The Securities and Exchange of Pakistan (SECP) has submitted a global comparison of the capital market overview and listing of companies to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance. The SECP officials informed the committee that the lack of incentives and heavy tax rates has discouraged new listing of companies at stock exchanges in Pakistan as compared to bourses in other countries where number of new listing is much higher. The number of listed companies at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) as on June 30, 2011 stood at 639; India 5,085; Malaysia 952; China 917; Hong Kong 1,448; Thailand 544; Singapore 773; Japan 2,285 and number of new listed companies at Colombo Stock Exchange was 259 as on June 30, 2011.
The traded volume at the KSE was US $11,192 million (July 2010-June 2011); Bombay Stock Exchange US $222,748 million; Bursa Malaysia US $137,892 million; Shanghai Stock Exchange US $4,828,616 million; Hong Kong Exchange US $1,573,529 million; Stock Exchange of Thailand US $252,569 million; Singapore Exchange US $309,084 million; Tokyo Stock Exchange US $4,036,542 million and traded volume at the Colombo Stock Exchange (July 2010-June 2011) stood at US $6,224 million, SECP officials added.