*KARACHI – The news of 172 people being placed on the Exit Control Listdealt a fresh blow to the market, dragging it down to its lowest level in10 weeks.*
The benchmark KSE-100 share index, a gauge to measure market performance,lost 687 points or 1.8% of its value by noon on Friday, down from the lastday’s closing level of 37,853 points.
The key trigger that drove market sentiment was a report by a SupremeCourt-appointed joint investigation team that revealed the names of 172people who are being investigated in a fake accounts case. The governmenthas put these people’s names on the ECL, barring them from leaving thecountry.
The list includes the presidents and senior executives of Summit Bank,Sindh Bank, and National Bank of Pakistan; executives of the Securities andExchange Commission of Pakistan, prominent businesspersons including realestate developers, builders, hawala dealers and sugar barons; bureaucrats;and politicians from Sindh’s ruling party including former president AsifAli Zardari, his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and sister Faryar Talpur aswell as Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.
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“Nawaz has been sent to jail already and if Zardari follows, it may lead tostreet unrest, which is not good for the market,” an analyst said,commenting on how the market is perceiving the developments on thepolitical front. “There is a lot of black money that goes into the stockmarket, so the fear is that any action may result in the drying up of thisliquidity from the market,” the analyst said, adding that it may have anegative impact in the immediate aftermath, but will be beneficial for themarket in the long run.
