KARACHI, Aug 1: The Karachi Stock Exchange would hold a special trading session on Saturday (Aug 2) from 11am to 12.30pm “to provide support to the market and provide an exit to investors,” the board of directors of KSE announced late on Friday evening.

The board announced that those members who wished to sell their securities, which were eligible in deliverable future, CFS & CFS MKII markets on behalf of themselves and or their clients could offer their shares for sale by entering their offers through the KSE electronic interface which is available on NCHS terminals by specifying the quantity, client code, scrip and separately specifying whether those positions were their purchased share, CFS open position or future open position.

“Please note that all transactions will be made on closing prices as on Aug 1 and the priority will be given to offers in the following order: (1) CFS open positions (2) Deliverable Future net buy position and (3) Ready deliveries,” the board said and added that all members and financial institutions who wished to take part as buyers in the above mentioned special trading session were requested to attend the session at KSE Board Room on Aug 2 at 12.30pm.

Commitments for purchase of shares from their authorised representatives should be matched by the exchange against the offers submitted by the sellers.

All successful bids/offers would be communicated to the purchasers/sellers on Monday morning (before market open) Aug 4, 2008. (Purchase-confirmation for financial institutions shall be provided through their respective brokers).

“All successful bids/offers will be made available for download through NCHS terminal by Monday morning i.e. Aug 4, 2008,” the announcement concluded.

The BOD announcement came after a meeting of 12 to 15 senior brokers and other members, followed by a meeting of the BOD and a meeting of the KSE board with the apex regulator Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

The special session on Saturday would be the second such session to be held in two weeks.

Following investors’ violent protest on July 17, an emergent meeting of the KSE board had been convened to rescue leveraged positions seeking an exit on Thursday (July 17) and stocks worth Rs4.2 billion were bought through the National Clearing Company Limited (NCCPL) window. That rescue measure helped to turnaround the market, which rose from the low level of 10,057 to 11,156 on July 24, aided also by the KSE visit of the SBP governor, Finance Minister Naveed Qamar and the setting up of a “Equity Market Opportunity