Stock market celebrates Musharraf's stepping down

LAHORE - The stock market on Monday rose more than 4 per cent, celebrating the resignation decision by President Pervez Musharraf, who stepped down, bringing down the curtain on unstable nine years in power to avoid impeachment. The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100-index ended the day up 4.47 per cent or 460.91 points to close at 10,719 level.
The rupee also started to strengthen on the news, after hitting a record low against the dollar on fears that Musharraf would be impeached. The rupee, which has shed around a quarter of its value, started to recover on Monday after falling to 76.65 to the dollar. From 283 traded scrips 236 closed in plus column and 37 in minus while 10 scrips closed at last level. Volumes saw handsome improvement and increased to 158.862 million shares. NBP kept top position in volumes with traded volumes of 13.574 million shares.
Dealers said that at last the moment came for which the nation was waiting since February 18th. President resigned and market welcomed that with its closing on very strong note. “Now restoration of the judges is the immediate challenge and if coalition government overcomes that then market can resume upward trend with full force,” they added.
The investors said the resignation would help to dispel the political uncertainty that has dented markets recently. They were of the view that market could grow more and the rupee could get stronger against the dollar if the country sees good governance in future. They added the resignation would eliminate all the uncertainties in the market and political tension waa coming to an end.
Earlier, the market opened on mixed note at 10264.71 points plus 6 points and climbed up to resume upwards trend on the news that President is going to address the nation.
In anticipation of President Resignation market initially went up but later on rumours that President is not resigning pulled the market down. When media confirmed his resignation it again climbed up breaching previous high and touched new high. When President started his speech and started criticizing government market took a deep plunge. Just few minutes after when he announced his resignation market in one go went to 10722.63 points but closed little lower at 10719.62 points after making massive gain of 460.91 points.
Free float index after opening in plus column fluctuated for some time and then closed at 12279.90 points after hitting 12285.58 points high. Junior index gained 589.67 points. All shares index gained 318.87 points and closed at 7691.77 points.
At LSE market closed little lower at 3466.11 points plus 173.12 points. Traded scrips were 90 in numbers and out of those 61 closed in plus against none closing in minus column while 29 scrips closed at their last level. Volumes doubled and 19.217 million shares were traded today.