OUR STAFF REPORTER KARACHI - The share of net investment and financing by the Islamic banks to the industrial sector has increased from 4.5 per cent to 6.2pc during the last quarter of calendar year 2010. The investment and financing activity recorded a modest surge during October-December 2010 with 49.8 per cent growth on year-on-year basis while it posted 95.6 per cent and 18 per cent growth over the previous quarter respectively. A significant growth in financing could be attributed to seasonal uptake in credit; the cotton harvesting commences during October-December quarter that gave sharp rise to credit/financing demands by textile sector. The State Bank of Pakistan, in its latest Islamic banking bulletin said that largest share of Islamic financing went to textile sector in Oct-Dec 2010. This sector posted 22 per cent growth followed by 17 per cent to individuals and 7 per cent to chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The report said that financing to production and transmission of energy and cement sectors had constituted 7 per cent and 4 per cent of IBIs financing portfolio respectively as compared to the industry average of 9 per cent and 3 per cent. The IBIs financing to the energy and cement sectors witnessed significant growth during the year as their share in the IBIs financing portfolio increased by 3 and 2 percentage points respectively to 7 per cent and 4 per cent. The unprecedented surge in investments is attributable to issuance of long awaited GOP Ijarah Sukuk of Rs.89 billion during the quarter, the report stated. According to the report, the Islamic banking industry maintained its growth trajectory during the last quarter of CY 2010 despite various challenges being faced by the economy. The industrys assets base during the quarter increased by 12.5 percent to Rs477 billion from Rs424 billion as at the close of September 2010; the YoY growth in the assets was 30 per cent. The deposits during the quarter increased to Rs390 billion from Rs338 billion in September 2010 reflecting a growth of 15.3 per cent on a QoQ basis whereas on the YoY basis, the deposits grew by 38 per cent from Rs283 billion as on December 2009.