National Commodity Exchange Limited (NCEL), an all-electronic derivatives exchange on Monday announced the date of its soft launch to be Friday, February 2, 2007.
NCEL will commence trading with the listing of the 100gms 3-month gold futures contract which will be followed, over a period of time, by rice, sugar, wheat, cotton seed oil cake, crude palm oil and a range of other financial derivatives contracts. The launch of NCEL will signal Pakistan's formal entry into the global marketplace of electronic commodity derivatives trading.
Investors in Pakistan, with the commencement of operations of NCEL, will be able to participate in commodities, which as an asset class have delivered strong returns in the last three years. Commodities offer a natural hedge against inflation particularly as the global demand for goods and services is increasing, leading to higher commodity prices.
As part of NCEL's pre-launch activities, NCEL welcomed distinguished guests, Fred Grede, former CEO, Hong Kong Futures Exchange Ltd, Hong Kong and Dennis Dutterer, former CEO, Board of Trade Clearing Corporation, Chicago, USA. During their visit, they reviewed the entire operational set up of NCEL.-PR