ISLAMABAD, Nov 2: A total of 202 companies were registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) during October under the Companies Ordinance, 1984, forty more than what were registered during the same month last year , reflecting 25 per cent increase, official figures show.

The highest numbers of companies registered during the month were reported from SECP's registration office at Karachi followed by Lahore and Islamabad, the figures show.

Karachi office accounted for 79 companies, which mean that 39 per cent of the total companies were registered by that office. Lahore and Islamabad enlisted 68 and 42 companies respectively.

Company registration offices of Faisalabad, Multan and Peshawar registered four, five and four companies respectively.

The figures show that total authorised capital of the 198 limited-by-shares companies registered during October stood at Rs4.157 billion. Out of these 182 were private companies having authorized capital of Rs1.823 billion, eight single member companies with an authorized capital of Rs13.3 million and eight were public companies with an authorized capital of Rs2.320 billion.

An analysis of the new registration by sectoral classification during the month of October shows that services sector was the most flourishing sector where 26 companies were registered followed by 22 companies in the trading and 19 in the communication sectors.

The total number of companies, as on October 31, were 44,618 including 2,801 public companies, 40,562 private companies, 176 single-member companies, 497 associations not for profit and companies limited by guarantee and trade organisations, 577 foreign companies and five companies with unlimited liabilities.

In October 2003, the total number of registered companies stood at 42,162.

The growth in companies incorporation characterized the whole of the past year whereby it is observed that the overall expansion has witnessed 46 per cent increase during the preceding twelve months in comparison with the corresponding period last year.

From November 1, 2003, to October 31, this year, 2,456 new companies were registered against only 1,684 registered from November 1, 2002 to October 31, 2003.

The corporate sector is anticipated to grow at a higher pace in future as well, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission's officials.

From March, this year, the corporate sector has maintained new incorporation exceeding the mark of 200 companies each month, which has far surpassed the registration figures of the previous year.