Stock plunge exposes Pakistan problems
By STEPHEN GRAHAM
(AP) - Pakistan's high-flying stock market has returned to Earth with a bump as worries about the nation's stability spook investors who had looked past the specter of terrorism for the chance of juicy returns.
The stratospheric performance of the Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark index became an emblem of how former army strongman President Pervez Musharraf has sought to modernize the South Asian country.
But with Musharraf ceding power to an increasingly fractious coalition of his opponents, the KSE-100 index recently shed nearly one-quarter of its value amid deepening political uncertainty and a series of alarming economic indicators.
"We've had broad-based panic," said Muzammil Aslam, an economist at KASB Securities in Karachi, Pakistan's business and financial hub. "What we need is a proper political setup, free of noise." |
