KARACHI, Sept 20: The CFS rates on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week soared to 19.95 per cent, showing a sharp increase of 317 basis points as compared to a week earlier.

Romessa Mirza, analyst at a leading research house, attributed the steep increase to higher risk perceptions in a market weighed down by the turmoil in the global financial centres after the bankruptcy of US investment bank, Lehman Brothers, and distress signals from the Morgan Stanely and Goldman Group followed by steep decline in their share values on the Wall Street.

CFS MK-2 investment on the other hand suffered a sharp decline of 8.1 per cent or Rs1.45 billion to close around Rs16.5 billion. Owing to prevailing sluggishness on the stock market, investor interest to trade shares was said to be at low ebb.

The top five companies which shared 39 per cent of the total CFS investment included JS Co, OGDC, Arif Habib Securities, National Bank and Bank Alfalah.

Open interest on the futures counter posted a modest rise of 0.87 per cent at Rs3.09 billion but on the other hand future spreads rose by 42 basis points to close at 57.36 per cent.