ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 481 new companies during September 2016. According to reports, 87 percent companies have been registered as private limited companies, 11 percent companies were registered as single member companies and three percent of the companies were registered as unlisted public companies, not-for-profit associations and foreign companies. The service sector took the lead with the incorporation of 80 companies, followed by trading with 62, information technology with 43, construction with 42, tourism with 29, food and beverages with 21, real estate development with 17, fuel and energy with 16, corporate agricultural farming and pharmaceutical with 13 each, education with 12, textile with 11, power generation and engineering with 10 each and 102 companies were registered in other sectors. Moreover, five foreign companies were also registered by the company registration offices (CRO) in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Foreign investment was reported in 37 new companies. The foreign investors were from, Afghanistan, China, France, Germany, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Turkey and UK. These companies were linked to chemical, communications, construction, corporate agricultural farming, education, fuel and energy, glass and ceramics, information technology, mining and quarrying, pharmaceutical, power generation, trading, transport, and miscellaneous sectors.