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BankIslami Pakistan Limited opens its 75th Branch in Orangi Town Karachi and is all set to achieve its target to increase its Branch Network to 102 branches in 49 cities. More than 40% of Branch network caters to the unbanked rural areas where the demand for the Islamic Banking is phenomenal and relatively untapped. Moreover, all 102 BankIslami branches are Online, which will enable all BankIslami customers to make transactions and access their accounts anywhere throughout the BankIslami Branch Network in 49 Cities. The Bank is now among the league of mid sized banks operating in the country. BankIslami has now considerable presence in the financial hub of Pakistan, "Karachi", which has proved to be the most attractive market for Islamic banking. The Bank will close the year with 30 branches in the metropolis encompassing the major areas of the city with a special focus to cover the unbanked areas.

Glaxosmithkline, the world’s second biggest drugmaker, said on Monday it was buying Bristol-Myers Squibb Pakistan for $36.5 million, adding to recent acquisitions made in emerging markets. In October Glaxo bought Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s Egyptian mature products for $210 million. The deal includes Veslosef, a popular branded antibiotic in Pakistan, along with products in cancer and cardiovascular drugs. “Although small in size this further highlights the strategy outlined recently by CEO Andrew Witty to increase GSK’s presence in the emerging markets, an area where it currently lags its European peers,” said Simon Mather, an analyst at WestLB.

There was no let up in the downward slide at the Karachi stock market as the 100-share index saw a correction of 296.96 points on Monday. Analysts said the reasons for the negative trend was continuation of selling pressure as liquidity crunch prevailed while lack of institutional support and retail divestment led to a correction. The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share shed a massive 296.96 points to close at 7,217.46 points as compared with 7,514.42 points traded in the previous session. The KSE 30 index lost 385.69 points and closed at 7,295.56 points as compared to 7,681.25 points of the previous session. KMI 30 index also declined by 423.56 points to close at 8,445.22 points as against 8,868.78 points of the previous session. The market turnover went down up by 66.95 percent and traded 28.00 million shares as compared to previous session’s 84.74 million shares. The overall market capitalisation fell by 3.69 percent and closed at Rs 2.241 trillion compared to Rs 2.327.65 trillio...