KARACHI, March 4: Both CFS rates and investment on the Karachi Stock Exchange last week remained capped at 18 per cent and Rs25 billion, respectively, as demand for funds was relatively slow owing to some negative news.

“The average ready and future volume suffered fall at 420m and 116m shares as compared to previous week’s 554m and 176m shares, owing to bomb blast in the city and Friday’s general strike,” leading analysts at a research house said.

But on the other hand open interest in March future contracts showed a sharp rise at Rs19.25 billion and so did future spreads around 21 per cent after having peaked at one stage to 28 per cent, they said.

“The higher future spreads are luring big operators to enter into the futures arbitrage as the market has now become terribly lucrative,” they added.

According to them, weighted average CFS rate on the Lahore Stock Exchange rose to 25 per cent from the previous week’s 18.4 per cent but investment remained capped at Rs2.30 billion.