KARACHI, Nov 23: The Board of Directors of the Karachi Stock Exchange in its emergent meeting held on Friday, November 23 at 3:00 pm decided that trading in the shares of Hub Power Company (Hubco) would resume from Saturday on both T+3 and Futures Counter, the KSE stated in a press release issued in the evening.

The Exchange said that the decision followed confirmation received from Hubco of their lenders’ approval for the 22 per cent final dividend for the year ended June 30, 2001, delivered to the Exchange under a sealed cover on Friday.

“The circumstances under which the fax was sent to the Exchange on Nov 20 and the delay in Hubco’s response continued to be investigated”, the KSE press release concluded.

Earlier in the day, Hubco also issued a statement saying that the lenders’ approval of final dividend at 22 per cent for the year ended June 30, 2001 as recommended by the Board of Directors, had been received on Friday. It said that the recommendation would be placed for the approval of shareholders at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting to be held in Islamabad.

Sources close to the KSE board and management say that the receipt and communication of the lenders’ approval prior to the opening of the market on Saturday had prevented further complication of the matter. The Hubco stock, it is learnt, would open at the last closing price of Rs19.45. The argument being that since all of the trade on Wednesday was based on the assumption that lenders’ approval had been received, and since it had actually been received, the positions remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, the management was understood to be looking into the trading patterns in Hubco stock during the time after the announcement of the forged fax on Tuesday and Wednesday. A member of the Board of Directors told Dawn that no one from the Board had been included in the investigating team, so as to maintain the transparency and fairness of the process. The investigations had been initiated by the KSE Board on its own but the Islamabad-based Corporate regulator was closely monitoring the situation.