KARACHI, Nov 6: The share market on Thursday was in a terribly bad mood and failed to lure investors in its fold even at attractively lower levels as the focus remained on the advent of fund buying.

The benchmark 100-share and its junior partner the 30-share index remained static at the previous levels of 9,183.14 and 10,003.99 points, indicating narrow price movements in the leading base shares for want of buying support.

An idea of the prevailing uncertainty about the proposed market support fund may well be had from the fact that the off-the-floor transactions by some of the panicky investors were done at 30 per cent discount from the previously 15 to 20 per cent, analyst Hasnain Asghar and Tabish H. Rajabali said.

But the buyers might have a fair idea of post-floor market and may not be taking calculated financial risk at this stage, they said.

The news from the aid front, after the president’s Saudi visit, notably reported oil facility on deferred payment was well-received in the market but investors were not enthused as they were more interested in the liquidity problem and advent of fund buying.

They said some technical problems related to proposed market support fund of Rs20 billion and its delayed operations appeared to be the main inhibiting factor behind the protracted sluggishness.

Shaukat Tarin during his visit to the stock exchange last Friday had announced that the proposed fund would be operative during the next couple of days. However the fund has not yet started its operations, although there is no official word on the issue.

The mixed reaction of the global equities to Obama’s victory may not have any direct relevance to the performance of the local bourse, but any aid package by the new US administration will certainly be welcomed, said a leading floor broker.

Barring Tri-Star Power, which rose by 21 paisa, other price changes were mostly fractional owing to falling demand. Azgard Nine, Southern Electric were marked up by one paisa each.

Pak Datacom led the list of losers, off by Re1 followed by Sitara Energy, Muhammad Farooq Textiles, Habib-ADM and Gharibwal Cement, off by 29 to 51 paisa.

Trading volume again fell to 0.237m shares from the previous 0.622m shares as losers held a modest lead over the gainers at eight to four, with 11 shares holding onto the last levels.

Al-Zamin Leasing led the list of actives, lower by five paisa at Rs1.95 on 0.115m shares followed by National Asset Leasing, up by one paisa at Rs0.41 on 39,000 shares and Sitara Energy, easy 29 paisa at Rs20.76 on 21,500 shares.

UDL Modaraba, easy by one paisa at Rs3.30 on 10,500 shares, Nimir Chemicals, static at Rs5.05 on 10,000 shares, Mukhtar Textiles, also static at Rs0.53 also on 10,000 shares and Gharibwal Cement, off 51 paisa at Rs17.08 on 6,000 shares.

KESC followed them, static at Rs3.80 on 5,000 shares, Muhammad Farooq Textiles, easy by 23 paisa at Rs2.01 on 3,500 shares and Dewan Auto, unchanged at Rs1.45 on 3,500 shares.DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Latif Jute came in for stray selling and was marked down by 15 paisa at Rs7.10 on 1,500 shares all others were traded at the last levels on light volumes.