Single stock forwards trigger Pakistan crash

Pakistan's stock market bubble has burst, with the country's single-stock forwards market partly responsible for enabling retail speculators to build massive leveraged long positions that they could not settle.

The country's stock market surged some 69% in the first ten weeks of 2005 with daily trading volumes reaching as high as $1bn, compared to $250m last year.  A heavy weighting in oil production stocks, a stronger...