In Lahore, a large number of investors burnt tyres and blocked the road leading to the Lahore Stock Exchange. A similar-sized protest was witnessed outside the Islamabad Stock Exchange in the federal capital where protesters expressed their anger over the slump in share prices by burning tyres.
Small investors staged violent protest in front of Karachi Stock Exchange building over the continuous decline of equities on the share market. The investors started agitation outside the KSE building at around 11am. They pelted the building with stones to express their anger. They chanted slogans against the government and demanded closure of the stock market for a few days and adoption of affective measures for their bailout. The protestors also entered the main trading hall and broke the windowpanes.
They damaged television sets and broke workstations at different sections on the ground floor. At least three protestors received injuries during the protest. The investors said that they are facing heavy losses as the market is witnessing worst-ever crisis during the last three months. The market has declined by around 35 percent from its all time high level of 15,676.34 points recorded on April 18, 2008.
Police was called by the KSE management to control the situation. DIG Police South Zone, Iqbal Mahmood and TPO Saddar Dr Aamir Shaikh talked to the protestors and appealed them to stop their protest. However, the protest continued till the end of the session at 2:15pm.
Some leading KSE brokers including Aqeel Karim Dedhi, Munir Ladha, Haji Ghani Usman also reached there and tried to cool the small investors. They said that they will discuss the situation in a meeting in the evening. They assured them that various decisions to protect the small investors will be taken in the meeting.
In Lahore, hundreds of small investors on Thursday staged a protest in front of the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) building against the exchanges' continuous decline, saying it has inflicted a loss of millions of rupees to investors.
The investors gathered in front of the LSE building at about 11:35 AM and started chanting slogans against the policies of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). They also criticised the political leadership of the coalition government. The investors also burnt tyres and blocked the road for half an hour. They demanded that the management closes the stock exchange until the government and regulatory bodies take comprehensive measures to safeguard investors.
The investors criticised the SECP for acting only to rescue potential investors and big brokers but ignoring small investors. After about 40 minutes, they returned back to the LSE building in anticipation of the closure of the stock exchange. When the management did not fulfil their expectations, they again blocked the road, burnt tyres and chanted slogans against regulators. However, no untoward incident took place and the gathering dispersed peacefully, though heavy police contingents were deployed on the occasion to deal with any eventuality.
LSE Managing Director Mian Shakeel, commenting on investors' protest said the LSE management was talking with it's board members and the SECP to determine collective measures that would better the stock exchange and help investors.
Shakeel said they would convey the protestors' sentiments to the SECP, expressing his hope for an appropriate solution to the issue. "It were the market forces that keep the stock market up and down thus it should continue to be governed by the natural mechanism" he added. Similar reports of protests in front of the LSE Trading Floors in Faisalabad and Sialkot were also received in the LSE head office.
In Islamabad, the investors and traders of Islamabad and Rawalpindi held a demonstration against heavy losses in the share business outside the building of Islamabad Stock Exchange, here on Thursday.
Around 100-150 small and individual investors of the twin cities gathered at the ISE premises to protest the ongoing panic like situation at the bourses of the country. The investors held demonstration in front of the ISE against fresh bearish assault, sharp fluctuation in stock prices and impact of circuit breakers - upper/lower locks in the market during the last few days.
The angry retail investors and short-term profit seekers burnt tyres and papers etc to register their protest. The crowd held government high-ups and regulators responsible for this situation.
The ISE management called police, which dispersed the protestors. Market players opined that the clients were not in a position to give margins to the KSE or banks, which forced the brokers to do blank selling without availability of market liquidity. The market has witnessed downfall of over 2000 points during the last three days, but nobody has taken any precautionary measure to prevent the crash.
Investors alleged that upper and lower locks were in place without necessary liquidity in the market and consortium comprising institutions, etc, was also not formed in time. The proposed consortium has to be formed for buying of shares in case lower locks are in place.
The investors came out of the premises of the ISE building at around 12pm, when ISE Network index nosedived during a bearish spell. The angry investors chanted slogans against the manipulators and speculative forces, saying that the government should not suddenly implement the stock market related decisions and take at least 10-15 days for gradual implementation of any new measure. During the last three days, the market has shown negative sentiment, which should be effectively checked by the regulators and the ISE management.
Most of the investors were of the view that unnecessary intervention of manipulators in the market should be eliminated. They argued that the stock market related statements and implementation of overnight regulations should be avoided to avert crash-like situations in the stock market. The demonstrators demanded establishment of a support fund and asked the State Bank of Pakistan to review its monetary policy for protection of investors.
The ISE secretary assured the investors of all help and taking up the matter with the Ministry of Finance and the SECP for resolution of the issue. According to a statement issued by the ISE here on Thursday:
"An emergency meeting of the management of the ISE and its leading members including Mian Muhammad Akram, Omer Iqbal Pasha, Syed Nooh Adnan and Rafaqat Ali Chaudhry was held to discuss the crisis-like situation in the stock markets of the country. The management and members were highly concerned about the continuing bearish spell prevailing in the stock markets which has eroded billions of rupees of small investors and brokers.
The management and the brokers community urge the government to take corrective measures immediately to bail out the stock market. On July 1, 2008, the stock market index stood at 12221 points with Rs 3737 billion of market capitalization.
However, the index has declined to 10212 as of the date with a decrease of Rs 500 billion in the market capitalization, registering a 16 percent and 13 percent decrease respectively in the index and market capitalization since July 1, 2008. The present situation warrants immediate government attention to support the market by taking all possible corrective measures," ISE added.