The world's most dangerous haven

摘要

This newspaper calls it "the world's most dangerous place". Mark Matthews of Merrill Lynch calls it "the greatest information-arbitrage opportunity in the world." He may be right. Since the start of the year, when Pakistan was reeling from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, it has been the best-performing stockmarket in Asia (see chart). More evidence of madness in financial markets? Probabry not. Its politics are bleak but the economy is expected to grow between 6.5% and 7% in 2008. Its companies continue, on average, to have a high dividend-4%-and a low price/earnings valuation-under 15 times. Perhaps its main salvation is the lack of foreigners in the market: that means fewer people to panic about the security situation-or the subprime situation back home.