Top 5 annual profit returning market year over year. You can check on Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley, etc, etc. Here is an older article for you to read:
Pakistan Stocks Best as Violence Ignored: Riskless Return
Michael Patterson and Shikhar Balwani
November — 6:44 AM EST
Pakistan is handing equity investors the world’s best risk-adjusted returns as terrorist attacks, power blackouts and a war with Taliban insurgents fail to curb gains in consumer spending that sent profits to a record high.
The KSE 100 Index, the benchmark for Pakistan’s $43 billion equity market, rose 7.3 percent in the past three years when adjusted for price swings, the top gain among 72 markets worldwide, according to the BLOOMBERG RISKLESS RETURN RANKING. Pakistan had lower stock volatility than 82 percent of the nations including the U.S. Over five years, Pakistan’s risk-adjusted returns ranked eighth.
The country’s 190 million people are boosting purchases three times faster than Asian peers as higher rural incomes and record remittances outweigh fighting on the Afghan border, violence in Karachi that led to at least 2,100 deaths this year and power outages that sparked rioting. The region’s fastest earnings growth may increase economic stability, according to Karachi-based Atlas Asset Management Ltd. Foreign investors added to holdings for five straight months, lured by Asia’s lowest valuations and biggest dividend yields.
“Stocks are very cheap and there are some very good businesses in Pakistan,” said Andrew Brudenell, whose HSBC Frontier Markets Fund has returned 18 percent this year, beating 92 percent of peers tracked by Bloomberg, and holds more shares in the country than are represented in benchmark indexes. “We still think there’s some positive growth to come from the markets.”
Record High
The KSE 100 returned 52 percent this year through yesterday. The gauge climbed 49 percent since al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. commandos during a raid on his compound in Abbottabad 18 months ago. It increased less than 0.1 percent to a record close of 16,256.97 today.
The risk-adjusted return, which isn’t annualized, is calculated by dividing total return by volatility, or the degree of daily price variation, giving a measure of income per unit of risk. A higher volatility means the price of an asset can swing dramatically in a short period, increasing the potential for unexpected losses.
The Sri Lanka Colombo All-Share Index’s 6 percent risk-adjusted return was the second-biggest worldwide in the past three years, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. companies had a 1.9 percent gain.
Profits Surge
Equity volatility is low in Pakistan partly because investors are no longer surprised by violence in the country, according to Muhammad Umair Chauhan, who oversees the equivalent of $127 million as the chief investment officer at Lakson Investments Ltd. in Karachi. Terror attacks have killed more than 40,000 people in Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari said in a speech in Tehran in August, without giving a time frame.
Earnings in the KSE 100 index advanced 45 percent during the past year, the largest gain among 17 Asian equity indexes, and this month hit the highest level since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 2005.
Consumer spending in Pakistan has increased at a 26 percent average pace the past three years, compared with 7.7 percent for Asia, according to data compiled by Euromonitor International, a consumer research firm. While the growth in Pakistan may slow to 6.6 percent in 2012, it will still exceed the 5.3 percent pace in Asia, according to Euromonitor estimates.
Engro Foods Ltd., a Karachi-based seller of dairy products, reported a 214 percent jump in net income for the third quarter, while Unilever Pakistan Ltd., a unit of the world’s second-biggest consumer-goods company, had a 36 percent gain, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Foreign Buyers
Dividends in Pakistan have also climbed at the fastest pace in the region. Payouts increased 49 percent in the past 12 months, giving the KSE 100 index a dividend yield of 6.6 percent, double the 3.3 percent average in Asia, Bloomberg data show.
“When corporate profitability is good, investors tend to ignore factors such as political instability and violence in the city,” said Chauhan, who’s based in Karachi, the commercial hub that generates more than half of the country’s tax revenue.
Foreign investors have purchased a net $153 million of Pakistan shares since the beginning of July, according to data from the Karachi Stock Exchange. Overseas holdings amount to about 20 percent of the bourse’s free float, or shares available for trading, according to Adnan Katchi, the head of international equity sales at Arif Habib Ltd.
Debt Rally
Bond investors are also growing more confident. Pakistan’s international debt, rated Caa1 at Moody’s Investors Service, or seven levels below investment grade, has returned 32 percent this year, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Next Generation Markets Index. Yields hit a two-year low of 8.5 percent on Oct. 26.
“There has been a consistent flow into the market,” Muhammad Asim, the head of equities at Arif Habib Investments Ltd., which oversees about $365 million, said in an Oct. 22 phone interview from Karachi.
Relatively low trading volumes on the Karachi Stock Exchange may make it difficult for investors to sell their holdings should volatility increase. About $41 million of shares in the KSE 100 changed hands daily on average during the past year, compared with $1.3 billion for stocks in Russia’s Micex Index and $10 billion for the Shanghai Composite Index in China, the largest emerging market, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Karachi Violence
Regulators imposed emergency trading limits in an attempt to halt a tumble in stocks during the global financial crisis in 2008. While the curbs prevented the KSE 100 index from falling for almost four months, the gauge plunged 48 percent in less than two months after the restrictions were lifted.
Pakistan’s economic growth has been restrained by terrorism, lawlessness, power cuts and political instability.
A 14-year-old female Pakistani activist in the Swat Valley was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen on Oct. 9, while a police investigator and four other people were killed in a suicide attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar this month.
Violence and extortion in Karachi have spurred more than 30,000 merchants to leave the city in the past two years, according to Atiq Mir, chairman of All Karachi Traders’ Alliance, which has 650,000 members. Power blackouts lasting as long as 18 hours a day have caused textile factories to shut.
Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s army chief, clashed with Zardari’s administration this year over claims the government sought U.S. help to prevent a coup following bin Laden’s death. Zardari’s predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, seized control of Pakistan in 1999. The former general stepped down as president in 2008 to avoid impeachment charges.
Volatile Politics
“People will turn their focus towards political triggers,” Sajjad Anwar, who oversees about $520 million as the chief investment officer at NBP Fullerton Asset Management Ltd., said in an Oct. 22 phone interview from Karachi. “I am expecting a correction, and some of the big players are on the selling side. Investors will rethink after the earnings season ends.”
Pakistani companies have found ways to cope with instability. TRG Pakistan, which manages call centers in the country’s three biggest cities, splits up teams of employees working for a single client across several locations, Nadeem Elahi, the firm’s country head, said in an interview on Nov. 13.
That allows the company to maintain operations if unrest or transport strikes in one part of the nation prevent workers from reaching the office, he said. TRG shares have gained 248 percent in Karachi trading this year.
But yet, you'd try to stick your nose into every thread about Pakistan. If you don't want to be quoted, I got a better idea, quit this form, delete your account and never come back
. Otherwise, its a public forum so be available to the "public" and offer valuable opinions to public like me so we all appreciate your honesty and smartness. Not read your post and smell burnt clothes from miles away.
And every Indian should be concerned.....the next on the list that Pakistan has, is to capture a big piece of the BPO/Offshore/Mobile App development market and that would be a loss to India. Its called Business and Strategy