[SHAFIQ KHAN]

The Karachi Stock Exchange is once again flexing it's wings to touch 10,000 points mark and has almost reached at 8,000 graph. Achievement of 10,000 points is not really important if it loses 4,000 points in a row in few weeks as it did early this year when hundreds and thousands of small and medium investors lost their life-long savings in few days and many got heart attacks. KSE has a prolonged notorious history of cheating it's investors, price manipulation, ramping, wash trades and pre-arranged trading, false or misleading information, capping and pegging, mini-manipulation, warehousing and inside trading.

If you look to the screen board, there are substantial number of stocks which are skyrocketing without any justification of the rule of the stock business. The company numbers [liquidity position, balance sheet, profitability, credit report or expansion of business] are slightly up but their stock value is 200% up.

In last two years, I have written dozens of articles and notes in newspapers and to the authorities in Pakistan and abroad to pay attention to the manipulation by KSE muggers. But same old tactics by the government, formation of investigation teams, conducting of inquiries and issuing warnings. As dust settles down, the same old game of hide and seek starts again. You can change habits of some people but cannot change personalities.

No matter what happens but one thing is granted that the most popular 'money making game' of giant investors doesn't change. 'Snakes and Ladders' popular game is played over and over, “drag down the market, buy cheap stocks and…………take the graph up again and sale on high prices and than drag down after few months to repeat the same curse………..

I am not saying that 100% of the big investors are thieves but in all fairness, the management of KSE and big investors should continue to issue warnings and cautions to the investors on the repercussions of the rising numbers as a slight setback in the politics could invite anaconda in the market. On the same time, the small and medium investors should also exercise their own common sense instead of being tempted in the heat of the moment of rising numbers. KSE is a swamp and whirlwind and it is impossible to bail out of it's trap.

Thank God that last week's earthquake disaster didn't affect the stock markets in Pakistan but since this region is very sensitive and politically unstable so you could expect anything at anytime.