KARACHI - The Karachi Stock Exchange has proposed a special off-market window facility to facilitate transactions for shares in the CFS list. Moreover, funds committed for the Equity Market Opportunity Fund (EMOF) will also to be used shortly to support the market. It was discussed in the emergence meeting hosted by KSE on Thursday afternoon to discuss the prevailing turmoil in the stock market, sources said. The focus of the discussion was on market weakness, which has been the basis for consistent losses for the past 16 sessions in the KSE 100-Index. It is likely that approximately Rs10b that have been committed to the EMOF as well as additional commitments from private sources will be utilized to address the issue of supply overhang and facilitate sellers looking to exit positions before the market opens on Friday, sources added. Additionally, the KSE has also invited other institutions and fund managers to communicate their block bids not necessarily CFS list scrips by Thursday night. Additional measures currently under discussion include changes in the mark to market loss reporting requirements for single stock futures as well as discussions with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to reduce margin requirements for bank lending against equity securities. Public sector institutions and particularly pension/provident funds may also be permitted to invest directly in the market. Under the existing rules, provident/pension funds can invest up to 30 per cent in listed instruments however, most public sector funds are only invested in fixed income securities, sources said. CFS is approximately at Rs30bn, these measures should help reduce the existing overhang of leveraged positions. Coupled with current valuations and dividend yields, this could indicate a turning point in the market.