February 24, 2008	Sunday	Safar 16, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 23: The investment under CFS (continuous funding system) on the Karachi Stock Exchange surged by 3.16 per cent during the post-election trading week as demand for fresh credit lines showed a considerable increase owing to end of the protracted political uncertainty after the victory of the opposition parties.

The perception that the new coalition governments both at the centre and the provinces will be stable lured investors back in the market as was reflected by price flare-ups and heavy daily turnover figures, commenting on the post-election sharp surge in CFS investment a leading analyst at the Invest Capital Saad Arshad Raja said.

The figure soared close to the ceiling of Rs55 billion at Rs54.26 billion as compared to previous week’s Rs52.6 billion, indicating the phenomenon of fresh leveraged positions, he said.

The CFS rates, however, did not show a relative rise and were up only by 28 basis points at 11.2 per cent from the previous 10.92 per cent.

The top five companies, which accounted for about 47 per cent or Rs25.5 billion of the total CFS credit lines were led by National Bank of Pakistan followed by Pakistan Petroleum, Askari Bank, Bank of Punjab, and Pakistan Oilfields.

The open interest on the futures counter was quoted at 15.36 per cent, Rs8.42 billion from the previous week’s Rs7.3 billion. However, future spreads remained under pressure throughout the week and were quoted lower by 0.58 to 21.00 per cent, sources said.