KARACHI, May 8: US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson has said that Pakistan’s stock market had a “huge” upside potential.

She stated this during her visit to the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) on Thursday. She held a meeting with its board of directors and said that she was keen to be at country’s premier stock exchange.

“I was preparing for the job and picked up the Wall Street Journal one day and there was a front page article on ‘Terrorism in Pakistan’ and on the business page there was a story on ‘How this (KSE) was the most successful stock exchange in the world’. So I wanted to visit this stock exchange, which is the symbol of Pakistan’s growth and symbol of hopefulness in the economy,” she said.

“I had also heard in the initial briefing at KSE a lot about the distinguished and impressive management the stock market had here,” she said.

The US ambassador expressed her pleasure for providing a chance to visit the KSE. She termed it a symbol of what Pakistan can and will be.

Earlier, KSE Managing Director Adnan Afridi gave a presentation on country’s economy, stock market and performance of Pakistan’s premier bourse.

He said Pakistan was having a persistently sustainable growth and will continue to do good in the future too.

It is one of the most open investment regimes in the world with 100 per cent repatriation of profits that has helped in attracting investment, he said.

Mr Adnan pointed out that financial services and telecom sector were absolutely deregulated with strong, professional regulators adopting global practices and strong demographics.

He said the KSE would be the top performer in the emerging stock markets of the world with a growth of 8.73 per cent during 2008. Taiwan would be the second with 5.69 per cent followed by Bangkok and Singapore, he added.

He said the growth rate of KSE was 40 per cent per annum for the last 10 years as its market capitalisation has grown from $35 million to $75 billion.

He said the KSE was heading for de-mutualisation, which would make it a member of prestigious group of developed stock markets of the world.

Responding to a question about the prospects of long-term investment in the backdrop of security concerns, Mr Adnan pointed out that despite ups and downs and political uncertainty in the country, the capital market continued to rise and crossed the 15,000 level.

He said that despite negative stories, investors were not worried about their investment or profitability, which is not affected.

Other members of the board of directors told the US ambassador that there were big upside expectations, once the security situation is improved.

US Consul General Kay L Anske and Press Attache Elizabeth O Colton were also present on the occasion.—APP