16 January 2005	Sunday	05 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Jan 15: Carryover rates on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week remained around their circuit breakers of 18 per cent owing to a tight money market, analysts said.

Owing to pre-eid heavy withdrawal from the banking system there has been a pressure on money supply which in turn caused flare-up in rates, they said.

Unlike the previous week, when the KSE index soared by 241 points despite a mid-week sell-off, the market is expected to follow the news from the political front, notably from Sui.

The Balochistan government has formerly requested the centre to send troops to protect the gas facilities and its possible negative fallout on stock trading. However, volume on the COT suffered a decline of 8.7 per cent at 478m shares as compared to previous week's figure but there was nominal change in the investment figure as share values finished the weekend session on a higher note.

PSO topped the list on active support followed by positive reports about its sell-off and investment in it rose to Rs6.1bn, showing an increase of about 26 per cent followed by Pakistan Oilfields at Rs5.3bn. OGDC suffered a decline of 7.3 per cent at Rs4.5bn as compared a week earlier.