Pakistani stocks shoot up 8.6%

Karachi: Pakistani stocks rallied 8.6 per cent on Tuesday after authorities took aggressive steps to stabilise a market that had slumped almost 30 per cent from its peak two months ago.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) board and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) met on Monday evening to decide a series of measures designed to curb further falls.

The market authorities decided to reduce the daily limit so that share prices can fall just one per cent and raise the limit on the upside movement to 10 per cent.

They also decided to ban short selling and aimed to launch a Rs30 billion market stabilisation fund.

The KSE benchmark 100-share index ended 8.6 per cent higher, or 960.50 points, at 12,122.67 on turnover of 137 million shares. The free-float KSE-30 share index gained 9.56 per cent to 13,969.56.