KARACHI, July 5: The CFS rates on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week suffered a sharp setback of 583 basis points at 14.5 per cent owing partly to an improvement in liquidity position and falling demand, analyst Saad Arshad said.

He said the current sluggishness on the stock market followed by creeping decline in share values throughout the last week, the demand for fresh credit lines showed a fall of 4.9 per cent or Rs1.58 billion at Rs30.67 billion.

“Many were not inclined to take fresh positions at the attractively lower levels even on the blue-chip counters in uncertain share market and that caused decline in the total figure,” he added.

A good part of the fresh CFS investment, 46 per cent, was shared by Arif Habib Securities, Pakistan oilfields, National Bank, Adamjee Insurance and D.G. Khan Cement, respectively.

The combined open interest on the future counter in the ruling July contract showed an increase of 2.8 per cent or Rs228.8 million at Rs8.42 billion from the previous Rs8.19 billion.

However, the largest increase of 1,938 basis points to 41.34 per cent from the previous 21.97 per cent was noted in the future spreads after the difference between the prevailing and future prices significantly widened, he concluded.