Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited achieved the highest ever monthly trading volume of PKR 129 billion in the month of August 2012 with a total of 325,000 contracts traded. This is a record increase, crossing the previous high of June 2012 of PKR 119 billion.
Discussing the achievement, Mr. Samir Ahmed, Managing Director PMEX, added that “This volume record is a testament to the fact that the market continues to grow at a fast pace. It also gives us the assurance that an increasing number of Pakistani investors are accepting commodities as an alternative asset class for portfolio diversification.”
Volumes at PMEX have since 2011 continued to exceed the combined trading volumes for all three stock exchanges. For the latest 3 month period, June to August, total PMEX volumes were Rs 352 bn compared to Rs 214 bn for the stock exchanges.
Furthermore 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 39% in the overall product mix of PMEX increasing from Rs 8.2 bn in August 2011 to Rs 47 Bn in Aug 2012”. This reinforces the view that Investors are trading crude oil as an Instrument for hedging their fuel bills.
PMEX will continue to follow the tight risk management procedures and controls that it has pioneered in Pakistan and that have stood it in good stead, especially in recent times of immense volatility in the international markets.
