September 09, 2007	Sunday	Sha'aban 26, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 8: After having fallen sharply lower during the last couple of weeks, the CFS investment on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week showed an increase of six per cent as demand for funds rose in a rising market.

Although the figure was still far below the ceiling level of Rs55 billion, during the last week it rose to Rs.44bn from the previous week’s Rs41.9bn, a leading analyst Ambereen Jiwani said.

She said the top five borrowers, who took the major share of the total amount of around 45 per cent, included National Bank, OGDC, Pakistan oilfields, Pakistan Petroleum and PSO.

But on the other hand CFS rates for the same period again fell by 17 basis points at 10.38 per cent from the previous 10.55 per cent as demand for funds fell owing to stock market retreat at the fag-end of the week owing to political tensions ahead of Sharifs brothers scheduled arrival on Monday (Sept 10).

The open interest on the cleared list posted a rise of bout 20 per cent at Rs7.2 billion from the previous week’s Rs6 billion.