February 11, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 22, 1428

KARACHI, Feb 10: After having touched the peak of Rs52.3 billion, the CFS investment on the Karachi Stock Exchange fell to Rs50.9 billion during the week as demand for funds shrank late last week, analysts said.

Out of the total CFS investment, more than 50 per cent went to the credit of National Bank, Pakistan Petroleum, OGDC, Pakistan Oilfields and Bank of Punjab owing to their ruling higher prices.

CFS rates on the other hand remained highly volatile, reflecting the pattern of demand for funds, but showed sharp mid-week increase and settled at 18.8 per cent as compared to previous 16.3 per cent, they added.

Keeping in view the prevailing bullish trend on the stock market, the upper limit of CFS rate has been revised upward to 19.77 per cent for the next week, they said.

According to them total future open interest in the ruling February contracts rose to Rs9.33 billion as compared to Rs7.91 billion at the end of the last week. Spreads on the other hand fell to 3.1 per cent owing partly to short sales.