The Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX) formerly National Commodity Exchange continues to grow at a rapid pace. In April 2011, PMEX trading volumes for the first time exceeded the combined volumes of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad Stock Exchanges in terms of the Rupee value traded.
For the month of April, PMEX had a record trading volume of Rs 68.1 billion in comparison to the stock exchanges' combined trading volume of Rs 66.2 billion. The turnover at PMEX has been growing very rapidly in the last two years. The April 2011 figure of Rs 68.1 billion reflects year-on-year growth of more than 800 percent as the comparative figure for April 2010 was Rs 8.4 billion. PMEX's increasing growth is coming about as a result of the continuous introduction of new products combined with low transaction costs and an efficient web based IT system that makes it very easy for brokers and their clients to transact and manage their trades. PMEX has also been holding road shows in various parts of the country towards increasing awareness about the exchange and its benefits.
In recent months the PMEX team has covered Hyderabad, Multan, Sadiqabad, Jhang, Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. More events are planned for other cities and towns throughout the country.
"With the establishment of PMEX, Pakistani investors now have a regulated and transparent domestic platform to trade commodities and hedge their price risk. Commodities are fairly well established as an alternative asset class world-wide and we are seeing this in process underway in Pakistan," said Samir Ahmed Managing Director of the exchange.-PR