Positive signs of growing confidence and interest in Pakistan markets.

Byline: Khalil Ahmed

PAGE: Tell me something about yourself and your career please?

Syed Ali Raza Bukhari: Prior to joining National Investment Trust Limited as the Head of SMAs, I have had the opportunity to set up and successfully manage a Pakistan Stock Exchange Member Brokerage Firm, bringing it up as boutique institutional trading platform. I have also been associated with the asset management industry for quite some time now, spreading my plus 15 years of specialized financial services experience into a diversified landscape of multiple professional domains like marketing/sales, advisory, distribution, product development, stock brokerage and operations. I have also had the honor to have represented our financial markets on myriad investment forums in Pakistan with a couple in UAE and China, alike.

PAGE: Could you please tell us about the savings and investment trends in Pakistan?

Syed Ali Raza Bukhari: If you look at the banking deposits in totality, the total deposits grew from Rs.14,000 billion in June 2019 to Rs.16,200 billion in June 2020 posting a growth of 16% whereas if only the deposits of salaried, self-employed and other individuals are looked into, the amount shows a persistent growth from Rs.6,900 billion in June 2019 to Rs.8,000 billion in June 2020 posting a stable and sticky growth of 17% in the given period.

In terms of the mutual funds industry alone, as an avenue for investments and savings, the Assets under Management (AUMs) have posted a promising growth, with figures as stated ahead. The number of active individual investors, if may looked into, have also grown from 300,000 in June 2019 to 330,000 in August 2020, albeit slowly but persistently. It may subtly include duplication of individual investor accounts, but still means growth. The relative value of individual investors has also grown from Rs.200 billion in June 2019 to Rs.300 billion in August 2020 posting a substantial growth of 50% in this period alone. The individual's average daily gross buying volumes of 140 million shares on our local bourse in October last year vis-a-vis 245 million shares of average daily gross buying volumes in October 2020 todate, is again showing nothing but a positive trend of investments in Pakistan. Local buying volumes have substantially picked up from July 2020, which is evidently depicting growing confidence and interest in the markets.

PAGE: How much interest does the foreign investors exhibit in the stock exchange of...