KARACHI, March 19: Investment on the carryover market on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week suffered a sharp decline of Rs5.2bn owing to a massive battering received by the leading shares in the backdrop of overdue technical correction. For the second week in a row the investment figure continued to fall from the recent high of Rs38 billion a couple of weeks earlier to Rs25.3bn during the week. The previous week’s figure was around Rs30.5bn. The other contributory negative factor was an identical decline in the volume, which fell to 210m shares from the previous 272m shares, analysts said. “Funds are being progressively pulled out from the carryover market followed by quick central bank moves to curb bank and DFIs investment before June 30, the deadline for end of this mode of financing”, they said.

Carryover rates, which have been capped around 18 per cent also showed a fractional fall of 10 basis points at 17.90 per cent after having touched the high of 27.2 per cent on March 14, when the PTCL was put on spot list.

The average weighted carryover rates on the Lahore Stock Exchange on the other hand stood at an alarming high level of 135.2 per cent as compared to 108.3 per cent a week earlier but investment fell to Rs4.4bn from the previous week’s Rs5.9bn, according to figures compiled by a leading research house.