04 April 2004	Sunday	13 Safar 1425

KARACHI, April 3: Weighted average carryover rates on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week soared into a double digit, touching the six-month high of 12 per cent owing to prevailing bullish conditions.

"In a rising market, the need for funds to finance share business increases and that in turn causes hike in the carryover rates (badla)," says a leading stock analyst commenting on the record rise in investment and volume over the last week.

The satisfying feature was, however, that there is no panic on the badla counter, associated with similar situations, so far as the money supply remains terribly cheaper.

According to weekly figures computed by a local leading brokerage house on daily basis the net rise over the week was 2.4 per cent at 12 per cent as compared to 9.6 per cent a week earlier.

Another contributory factor aiding higher badla rate was the increase in the volume figure, which touched the high mark of 479m shares, it said.

In an identical bull-run in September last year, badla rates swelled to 18 per cent in the backdrop of a record investment of Rs25 billion. But that time the share of Oil & Gas Development Company (OGDC) was not included in the carryover transactions.

Total badla investment, both at the KSE and the LSE rose to Rs28 billion during the week, showing an increase of Rs0.5 billion over the comparable figure last week.