| Type | Commodity exchange |
|---|---|
| Industry | Business Services |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | 9th Floor, PRC Towers, 32-A, Lalazar Drive M.T. Khan Road, Karachi, Pakistan |
| Products | Futures exchange |
| Website | http://www.pmex.com.pk |
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited (formerly National Commodity Exchange Limited - NCEL) is Pakistan's first futures commodity market having its registered Head office in Karachi. It is the only company in Pakistan to provide a centralized and regulated place for commodity futures trading and is regulated by Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). It has started full trading activities on 11 May 2007.
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (formerly National Commodity Exchange Limited) is the first technology driven, web-based, demutualized commodity exchange in Pakistan. It is licensed and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and has a 100 % Institutional shareholding.
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited started its operations in May 2007 as a fully electronic exchange with nationwide reach. PMEX is committed to provide a world-class commodity futures trading platform for market participants to trade in a wide spectrum of commodity derivatives, driven by best global practices, professionalism and transparency.
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange is the first Exchange in Pakistan to employ modern risk management techniques based on Value-at-Risk with a pre-trade risk check in real time. The Exchange acts as a central counterparty to both buyers and sellers through a novation process and provide clearing & settlement on a T+0 basis using on-line bank transfer mechanism.
The Membership of Pakistan Mercantile Exchange is open to all. Currently there are more than 300 members registered on the Exchange and the number is growing every month. The members include brokerage houses, individuals and industry specialists ranging from traders to exporters and importers and commodity specialists.
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange recently changed its name from National Commodity Exchange Limited to better reflect its broad mandate and scope of activity to trade all types of futures contracts.
The Exchange recently increased its timings and now operates 21 hours. The increase in trading hours is important at this time as the international market is ticking very fast and investors in Pakistan also get the opportunity to be part of the global activity from a regulated platform whereby they benefit from the commodity price trends and have the ability to hedge their trades.
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange has an Institutional shareholding and the shareholders include National Bank of Pakistan, Karachi Stock Exchange, Lahore Stock Exchange, Islamabad Stock Exchange, Pak Kuwait Investment Company (Pvt.) Limited, and Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd.
Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (formerly National Commodity Exchange Limited - NCEL) initially started trading in Gold only. This listing was followed by the first gold physical delivery in August 2007. Additional Products were subsequently launched – IRRI -6 rice in March 2008 Palm Olien futures in June 2008 and KIBOR futures in Jan 2009. Crude Oil and Silver contracts were listed in Nov 2009. Recently the Sugar contract was also added in June 27, 2011.
The main commodities traded on the Exchange have been Gold, Silver and Crude Oil. There are various contracts in each. Gold has eight contracts namely Gold 1 ounce, Gold 100 ounce, Gold 1 Tola, Gold 50 Tola, Gold 100 tola, Gold Kilo, Gold 100 gms, and Minigold 10 gms. Tola gold and minigold are deliverable contracts. Furthermore there are two contracts in Silver – 100 ounce and 500 ounce and two contracts in Crude Oil – 10 barrels and 100 barrels. The smaller lot sizes for Silver and Crude Oil were introduced very recently in June 2011.