May 11, 2003	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1424

KARACHI, May 10: After having fallen to new lows, the carryover rates rose modestly during the last week followed by reports of about four per cent increase in the KSE 100-share index in a fortnight and higher badla financing.

Although the carryover rates at one stage peaked to eight per cent but the final finish was around 6.8 per cent as compared to 5.9 per cent a week ago.

“Activity on the carryover market is expected to further pick up during the coming weeks boosted by some positive reports on the corporate front, including the sell-off of PSO and some other state-owned units,” analysts said.

The total carryover financing on the Karachi and Lahore stock exchanges rose to over Rs10.7 billion, bulk of which Rs8.9 billion went to the credit of the former and Rs1.3 billion to the latter, according to the break-up of the figures calculated by a leading research house.

PSO again attracted bulk of the share financing over the last week amid hopes of its early sell-off to some strategic investor from the Gulf after the announcement of final bidding date.

PTCL and Hub-Power followed it, the interesting feature was that D.G. Cement and Pakistan PTA also joined the list of big ones as investment in them rose to 40 and 38pc, respectively.

Leading stock analysts predict the carryover rates are expected to fluctuate between six and eight per cent both on the lower and higher sides during the next week.