KARACHI: The foreign investment in Karachi Stock Exchange in July rose three times the foreign inflow into Pakistan’s capital market during the corresponding period over the past two years.
As per details, overseas investors have bought $648 million worth shares in local market over the past seven months of the current year while foreign net buying in July 2014 alone amounted to $68 billion.
Experts attributed the three percent increase in KSE-100 index to the huge flow of foreign funds into Pakistan bourses as July was the fourth consecutive month of net foreign buying, which provided investors with a cumulative gain of 21 percent over the first seven months of 2014.
According to reports, the high returns have placed Pakistan so far among the top 10 performing stock market for the third consecutive year.
Being long term investors, foreigners put more cash into equities in July, conspicuous by their absence were the local institutional and individual investors who were spooked by the evolving uncertainties on the political front on consequences of a possible conflict between the government and some political parties determined to hold rallies on Aug 14, 2014.
So far in the current year, foreign investors bought equities worth $1.7 billion and sold $1.1 billion, resulting in net inflow of $648 million (including $311 million participation in UBL’s secondary offering).
The amount has been adjusted against the official data of National Clearing Company of Pakistan that does not include UBL offering since it was not invested through the stock exchange.
In a recent report, the investment analyst mentions that following the secondary offering of United Bank (UBL) in June 2013 in which major portion was bought by offshore investors, foreign portfolio investment in Pakistan reached Rs584 billion ($6bn), according to official data, which surpasses the previous highest foreign investment of $5.1 billion seen in the bull-run in April 2008.
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