Carryover rates show modest decline

Published February 13, 2005

KARACHI, Feb 12: After remaining static around 18 per cent for the last couple of weeks, carryover rates on the Karachi Stock Exchange showed a modest decline during the previous week followed by reports of steady inflow of fresh funds in a high-yielding market.

Analysts at a leading research house believe that delivery-based buying has made deeper inroads in the badla market, which in turn caused a slight fall of 40 basis points at 17.6 per cent from 18 per cent a week earlier.

As a result, investment on the carryover market also rose by Rs443m at Rs37.5bn as compared to Rs35.8bn a week earlier, they said.

Both badla rates and investment on the Lahore Stock Exchange also fell by 880 basis points at 23.4 per cent and investment at Rs5.3bn on volume of 70.4m shares.

Owing to bullish conditions prevailing on the stock market where the KSE 100-share index gained another 270 points and finished at its career-best level of 7,239.00, investment on badla market kept rising while rates declined marginally, some other analysts said.

Most analysts predict that badla rates will remain on the higher side during the coming weeks also as the demand for funds is increasing in a bull market, they said.

Meanwhile, Southern Gas Company has been taken off the list of securities eligible for badla financing, while Nishat Mills and Lucky Cement will follow it during the current month.