The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan registered 206 companies last month taking the country’s total corporate portfolio to 56,774 companies by end of September 30, 2010.

Of the registrations 183 were private companies, 16 single member companies, two public unlisted companies, four foreign companies and one trade organisation.The trading sector was leading with 31 new incorporations, services sector with 23, construction with 16 companies and IT with 11 companies. The communication sector enlisted 10 companies followed by transport and Hajj and Umrah services with 9 companies each, and textile sector with eight companies.

The highest number of new incorporations took place at the Karachi Company Registration Office (CRO) where 71 companies were registered followed by Lahore and Islamabad registering 62 and 53 companies respectively.

The CROs of Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad and Quetta registered 7, 6, 5 and 2 companies respectively.

The authorised capital and paid-up capital of 206 companies, is Rs168.53 million and Rs54.37 million respectively.

During the month under review, 31 companies increased their authorised capital with the aggregate authorised capital increment of Rs7.5 billion and 66 companies raised their paid-up capital with the total paid-up capital increment to the tune of Rs2.82 billion.

DAWN (ISLAMABAD Oct 11)