September 23, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 10, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 22: After several lean weeks owing to political uncertainty the CFS investment on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week showed an increase of five per cent to meet the growing need for fresh credit lines in a rising market, analysts said.

The figure has been hovering between Rs42 billion and 46 billion well below the ceiling of Rs55 billion in a declining market but it soared to Rs48.2 billion during the last week as compared to Rs46 billion a week earlier, they said.

A leading analyst Muhammad Ali attributed the increase to price flare-up in share values caused by a record rise in world oil prices well over $84 and announcement of date for the presidential election on Oct 6.

As a result, CFS rates also showed a sympathetic rise of 51 basis point at 10.81 as compared to 10.30 a week earlier but it was contained below the figure of 11 per cent despite sharp mid-week price hike in oil and some other leading shares, he added.

Bulk of the new credit line about 49 per cent went to the credit of five top companies, notably Pakistan Petroleum, National Bank, OGDC, Pakistan Oilfields and some others.

The open interest in the September settlements was settled two per cent lower at Rs7.4 billion as against Rs7.6bn a week earlier and so did future spreads lower at 6 per cent as compared to previous 6.9 per cent.