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Pakistani stocks end flat, volume withers
Reuters - Saturday, November 8
KARACHI, Nov 7 - Pakistani stocks ended flat on Friday in record low volume and dealers said investors had lost interest because of a floor on the main index.
The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100-share index <.KSE> ended at 9,183.14 points, 39 points above the floor that was imposed on Aug. 28 after sharp losses. Volume was a mere 1,700 shares, the lowest ever.
The KSE-index has lost nearly 35 percent since the beginning of the year.
"There isn't any interest in the market due to the floor," said Sajid Bhanji, a dealer at brokers Arif Habib Ltd.
"It'll be like this until the floor is removed."
Exchange authorities have declined to say when the floor will be removed except to say it will be after a government support fund is in place.
A fund of 20 billion rupees is being finalised to support share prices when the floor is removed.
Four state-owned companies are expected to invest 5 billion rupees each and the fund will be managed by National Investment Trust. An exchange official said last month the fund would invest in nine-state owned entities.
Dealer said investors were also awaiting clarity on foreign inflows and other financial assistance including the possibility of an International Monetary Fund loan and a Saudi oil facility.
Pakistan is facing a balance-of-payments crisis and needs $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion quickly to fill a financing gap.
In the currency market, the rupee was quoted closing at 81.00/20, compared with Thursday's close of 80.90/81.00.
The rupee has weakened 24 percent against the dollar since the beginning of the year.
The government has said it does not want to have to sign up to an IMF programme but it held talks with the IMF in Dubai that ended last week. The IMF said at the time more discussions would be held in a few days.
The government is hoping for help from friendly governments, such as Saudi Arabia, and other donors but they have been reluctant to come forward and analysts say the nuclear-armed U.S. ally has little option but to accept IMF help.
Total foreign reserves, including those held by commercial banks, have fallen sharply from a high of $16.5 billion in October last year, to $6.76 billion on Nov. 1, of which the central bank accounted for $3.53 billion.
The central bank's reserves are less than September's total imports of $3.807 billion.
In the money market, short-term money rates ended at top levels after the central bank sold 30.1 billion rupees of Treasury bills under one-day repo contracts at 9 percent to absorb liquidity from the money market.
Overnight call rates ended at 12.90 percent, unchanged from Thursday's close.
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