KARACHI, Feb 2: The investment under the Continuous Funding System (CFS) on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week showed a modest rise of two per cent to hit Rs52bn level after having fallen below the Rs50bn-level during the recent past.

But on the other hand the CFS rates did not show much change and remained stable, showing a fractional decline of 11 basis points at 10.80 from the previous 10.91 per cent.

The increase in the investment figure indicates that investors are back in the market despite the fact that the trading remained highly volatile under the cross-current of both the negative and the positive news, some analysts said.

But Ambreen Jiwani at research house Invest Cap said the increase reflected that the investors had taken fresh leveraged positions although its impact on the CFS ruling rates was minimal.

The top five scrips which shared bulk of the CFS investment about 43pc or Rs22bn included National Bank, Arif Habib Securities, Pakistan Oilfields, Pakistan Petroleum and OGDC.

The total open interest on the forward counter posted a sharp fall of 33pc and was last quoted at Rs7.97bn as against the previous total of Rs11.93bn but future spreads moved both ways between 2.37 and 5.22pc and finally settled at the lowest of the week, 2.37pc, analysts said.