ISLAMABAD, April 17: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 1,137 companies during the first quarter (January- March) of the current calendar year compared to 913 companies registered during the quarter that ended on Dec 31, 2006.

Month-wise incorporations shows that 276 companies were registered in January, 419 in February and 442 in March this year, according to figures released by the SECP here on Tuesday.

Of the total 1,137 companies, 1,112 were limited by shares, comprising 23 public unlisted companies, 1,041 private companies and 48 single member companies. In addition to this, 17 foreign companies and eight associations not for profit were also registered.

The total authorised capital and paid-up capital of the 1,112 companies limited by shares registered during the quarter amounted to Rs12.608 billion and Rs2.101 billion, respectively.

The Company Registration Office (CRO) Lahore registered the highest number of 406 companies, followed by CRO Karachi 350 companies and CRO Islamabad 216 companies. The CRO Peshawar, Multan, Quetta, Faisalabad, and Sukkur registered 60, 49, 26, 25 and five companies, respectively.

The highest number of 315 companies was registered in the services sector, 115 in trading, 74 in information technology, 63 in real estate development sector, 42 in fuel and energy, 41 in tourism and 40 in engineering sector.

During the current financial year, a total of 2,970 new companies have, so far, been registered with the commission.