28 March 2004	Sunday	06 Safar 1425

KARACHI, Mar 27: Total worth of shares traded online through the AKD Trade website (akdtrade.com) crossed Rs100 billion mark. A company press release stated that akdtrade.com was Pakistan's first investment website , which was launched on November 1, 2002.

In 16 months, AKD Trade had crossed mark of Rs100 billion, processing more than 10,000 customer trades per day. It offers investors quick and convenient access to the Karachi Stock Exchange, right from their own PC, making stock trading a viable option for the people who would otherwise not be able to deal with the hassles of trading at the stock exchange, the company said.

It stated that akdtrade.com had been designed for convenience and ease of understanding, and it provided in-depth market analysis and up-to-date information and actually guided investors towards making sound investment decisions. It also offered the advantage of real time transactions with small transactions also getting executed instantly.

"Along with the website, AKD Trade has provided its customers a number of innovative tools to help them stay in touch with the stock market and keep control over their portfolio," the statement said and added that those included Pocket Stocks, a cellular phone application that provided live stock market quotes to Ufone subscribers. It said that confidentiality and security of customer account details were the primary considerations and customer trust was another reason why akdtrade.com had the largest retail customer base in the country today, the company statement concluded.