KARACHI, Oct 22: Investment under the Continuous Funding System (CFS) on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week fell to an eight-week low owing to offloading of positions by some leveraged buyers in October futures after a massive decline of about seven per cent in the index.

Over the week, it fell to Rs23.5 billion from the capped upper limit of Rs25 billion, but on the other hand the investment level on the Lahore Stock Exchange remained capped at Rs2.3 billion as the weighted average rates, showing a modest fall of 310 basis points at 21.3 per cent, analysts at a leading research house said.

The weighted average CFS rate on the KSE fell to 13.5 per cent from the previous 21.6 per cent a week earlier, as the demand for funds showed a considerable decline owing to market crash during the last two sessions of the week, they said.

After earlier crossing the Rs15 billion mark, open interest in stocks on the forward counter fell to Rs14.4 billion, showing a fall of 0.3 billion as compared with the previous figure of Rs14.7 billion.

The weighted average futures spread also fell by 910 basis points, as leveraging through stock futures was financed at 25.6 per cent from the previous week’s 34.7 per cent.