Pakistan Mercantile Exchange ended the first quarter of FY 2012-13 with a record trading volume of Rupees 385.58 Billion in terms of value. This represents an increase of 40.71 % on previous quarter. Over Rupees 150 Billion of traded volume was seen in September which is a monthly record, beating previous monthly high of 129 Billion Rupees set in August 2012. The corresponding number of contracts traded in the quarter was 1,051,032 which is also a record. Number of active brokers reached a high of 67 and investor accounts were at record level of close to 8,000.
Discussing the achievement, Mr. Amjad Khan, Acting Managing Director PMEX, added that “This record volume sets a high benchmark for the Exchange to continue performing in the coming months. It also gives us the assurance that an increasing number of Pakistani investors are placing their trust in PMEX as the only legal platform for Commodities Investing whilst adding commodities as an alternative asset class for their wealth portfolio diversification.”
PMEX is showing continuous improvement and diversification in its product mix. Mr. Mansoor Ali, Chief Business Officer at PMEX commented “Our product mix has been growing for quite some time now as investors become aware of and familiar with different products. While Gold has been the dominant product since the initial days, improvement in Crude Oil trading has been witnessed as it took a market share of 40% in the overall product mix of PMEX increasing from Rs 4.7 Billion in September 2011 to over Rs 60 Billion in September 2012”. This reinforces the view that investors can use PMEX for all fuel hedging needs given the deep liquidity and trading volumes on the Exchange.
Over the last couple of years Pakistan Mercantile Exchange has managed to establish a strong footprint in managing and offering International commodities in Pakistan market - that has led to paving the path for introducing domestic commodity contracts. Investors’ participation has been an essential ingredient in driving the market to achieve this level. PMEX initiated an education drive to create awareness of the Commodity market and its benefits for the Individual investors – which is in the form of Seminars, workshops and road shows across the country.