KARACHI, Aug 24: Investment in carryover trade (COT) or ‘badla’ rose to Rs5.3 billion, which was the first time in three-and-a-half months — since May 10 — that it had crossed the Rs5 billion mark.

The weighted average badla rate rose to 12.8 per cent on Friday, from 11.9 per cent the previous week-end. Volume at the COT market rose to a three-month high figure of 167 million shares, from the previous Friday’s volume of 150 million shares.

Khalid Iqbal Siddiqui, analyst at InvestCap, said that the bull-run that saw KSE index jump by 2.8 per cent in the last two trading sessions of the week, with total trading volume of 650 million shares had also influenced key COT statistics as well.

IP Securities in its report observed that COT investment in PSO and Hubco had contributed the lion’s shares to the total investment in the market. The brokerage, which prepares COT report on ten top scrips, showed COT investment in PSO at Rs1,259 million at average rate of 11.2 per cent. COT investment in Hubco stood at Rs1,295 million at average rate of 10.5 per cent. The two scrips accounted for 57 per cent of the average COT investment of Rs4,477 million.