Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) is the biggest and most liquid exchange in Pakistan with the average daily turnover of 525.15 million shares and market capitalization of US $ 54.28 billion. The international magazine 'Business Week' announced the KSE as the best performing world stock market in 2002. Since then the KSE continuously maintains the reputation as one of the best performing markets in the world.
Since 1991, foreign investors have an equal opportunity together with local investors to operate in the secondary capital market on the Karachi Stock Exchange. The establishment of the new policy for foreign investors and initiated privatization in Pakistan has accelerated the development of the KSE, which had even 663 companies listed in 2006. In addition, companies have a choice to be listed on one of the two markets - the ready market and the over-the-counter (OTC) market, which has lesser listing requirements. While the ready market requires listing companies to have minimum paid up capital of Rs 200 million (about UK � 1.8 m), the companies with minimum of Rs 100 million can be listed on the OTC market.
The Karachi Stock Exchange trades the KSE-100 Index. It is a highly-diversified index of 100 largest capitalization companies' stocks from all sectors of Pakistan economy. A constantly revised index is a good indicator of the overall Exchange performance over a period of time. In 2005, 88% of the KSE total market capitalization was represented by the KSE-100 Index.
The membership in the Karachi Stock Exchange is limited. Only 200 individual and corporate entities can register as members in the KSE. In 2005, 162 members traded actively on the Exchange. In addition, foreign corporate entities may also become the members of the KSE with the condition that the nominee member of the company is a citizen of Pakistan.
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