PMEX registers record trading volumes

Number of contracts, active brokers, investor accounts also hit record.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX) ended the first quarter of fiscal 2012-13 with a record trading volume of Rs385.5 billion in terms of value, which is up by 40.7% compared to the preceding quarter, a statement said on Monday.

September saw trade volumes of Rs150 billion, which is a monthly record, as the previous monthly highest figure was of Rs129 billion for August. The number of contracts traded in the quarter was 1.05 million, also a record. The number of active brokers also reached a high of 67 with investor accounts reaching a record level of almost 8,000, the statement said.

Quoting Amjad Khan, acting managing director of PMEX, the statement said that the record volume proved that an increasing number of Pakistani investors trusted the PMEX as the only legal platform for commodities trading.

The statement said that while gold had been the dominant product from day one, improvements in crude oil trading had also been witnessed of late, as it now had a market share of 40% in the overall product mix of the PMEX. It has increased from Rs4.7 billion in September 2011 to over Rs60 billion in September 2012.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2012.