KARACHI, April 20: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) appeared to have reconsidered its earlier proposal and agreed to the stock market’s request to extend deadline for phase out of remaining seven scrips from the Carry Over Trade (badla) to August 3, 2005.

The Commission also specified period during which COT in the seven remaining scrips would take place. The new time frame has been set from June 8 to August 3. Twenty-three of the thirty stocks that were on the COT counter have been removed and the disagreement between the SECP and the KSE stood out in the remaining seven stocks: PTC, Hubco, NBP, POL, DGKC, OGDC and PSO.

Replacing the earlier position of various percentages and period, the SECP notified weekly reduction of outstanding position by 12.5 per cent shares for each of the eight weeks, from June 8 to August 3.

The news was greeted by the market with a gain of 80 odd points earlier in the day but the rally did not last long. With COT ready to bow out and margin financing looking to be a little distant, punters seemed scared to take up fresh positions. The KSE-100 index plunged by another 281 points during the day to the 6953 point level. Trading volumes also remained abysmally low at 216m shares.

Most market participants thought it was a good gesture on the part of the SECP, which should help market to calm down. Concerns, though, remained on the regulatory modalities, particularly on how the eight-week reduction of outstanding positions, as has been asked by the commission, could be monitored.

The new schedule of phase out of remaining seven scrips that was posted on the KSE website in the morning on Tuesday.