South Asia Investor Review

Pakistan's benchmark index KSE-100 has soared nearly 40% so far in 2025, becoming Asia's best performing market, thanks largely to phenomenal growth of retail investors. About 36,000 new trading accounts in the South Asian country were opened in the September quarter, compared to 23,600 new registrations just three months ago, according to Topline Securities, a brokerage house in Pakistan.  Broad and deep participation in capital markets is essential for economic growth and wealth distribution in any country.  Pakistan's KSE-100 Index Chart. Source: Bloomberg Increase in trading accounts is helping inflows into local equity mutual funds as well. As much as 16% of total assets managed by asset management companies is now invested in stocks at the end of September, up from 9% at the start of the year, according to data from the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan, as recently reported by  Bloomberg .  Pakistan Investment Accounts Growth. Source: Bloomberg Massive...

Elliot Wave theorist Mark Galasiewski is forecasting continuation of multi-year bull market in Pakistan. This forecasts marks an unusual agreement of  a technical analyst with fundamental research done by  Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs who recently  reiterated Pakistan's place on its growth map .    The Elliott Wave Theory , formulated in 1939 by Ralph Nelson Elliot,  is the basis of technical analysis that some traders use to analyze financial market cycles and forecast market trends by identifying extremes in investor psychology, highs and lows in prices, and other collective factors. Here are some excepts of a recent interview of Elliot Theorist Mark Galasiewski on what he calls the "Indian Ocean Renaissance": ".... there are various ways to make long-term investment decisions. For example, Warren Buffett has shown that picking individual stocks can provide good returns over time. But it's a very labor-intensive and time-consuming process, to...