August 13, 2006	Sunday	Rajab 17, 1427

KARACHI, Aug 12: The weighted CFS rates on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week suffered fresh fall at 14.3 per cent from the previous 15.7 per cent in the absence of strong demand from the leading investors.

A leading analyst at a research house said a steep decline in share values during the last four sessions of the trading week kept investors out of the share business owing to financial risks involved in a falling market. For an identical reason investment under the CFS also fell well below the cap of Rs24.5bn to Rs22.3bn as a section of investors sold in part their long positions rather than opting for fresh borrowed funds, he added.

But on the other hand open interest in stock futures showed a sharp rise of 29 per cent at Rs10.8 billion from the previous Rs8.4 billion despite a terribly weak stock market, they said, adding “it reflects investor worry over the continued ban on short-selling on the forward counter”.

The weighted average future spreads, however, showed a fractional decline at 10.4 per cent as compared to 10.5 per cent a week earlier.