August 14, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 15, 1424

KARACHI, Aug 13: Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDC) said that 89 companies had joined CDC since January 30, 2003, making a total of 524 securities that are now under the Central Depository Services (CDS).

A press release issued by the Depository Company on Wednesday said that the new securities had joined in compliance with the orders of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), that had asked companies that were still outside, to join CDS by July 31, 2003.

“CDC is finalizing the list of remaining companies that have not complied with the SECP’s order to be sent to the Commission for necessary action,” the press note stated.

It said that the Depository Company had recorded huge settlement volumes in its CDS. “Touching a mark of Rs330 billion of market capitalization of securities in CDS, CDC now has over 8 billion securities in its CDS,” says the Depository Company, adding that its Investor Account Services had recorded over Rs80 billion of market capitalization in more than 9,000 investor accounts at Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

The Depository stated that the number of shares deposited in CDS in July was 222.55 million, which it claimed was “a testimony to the everlasting confidence shown by the market in utilizing the benefits of the technology driven services (CDS).”

Earlier this month CDC had announced reduction in its tariff by 10 per cent with effect from July 26, 2003. The decrease in Annual Fee (levied on issuers of securities); Transaction Fee (levied on Participants\account holders and Investor Account Holders) and Custody Fee (levied on Participants\Account Holders and Investor Account holders), was the 14th consecutive tariff cut since starting the operations on September 3, 1997.