National Commodity Exchange Limited (NCEL), an all-electronic derivatives exchange, which will have its soft launch in February 2007, has arranged an investor seminar at Lahore on December 20.
The country's first online commodity exchange company 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 oilcake, 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," said Nadia Malik, the company's media manager while talking to APP here on Monday. She said the first seminar to educate and inform investors would be held at Islamabad on December 19, and a series of seminars for farmers, investors, and broker workshops would follow in the main cities of the country.
The spokesperson observed that commodities were a natural hedge against inflation at the national level as well as globally, apart from offering a great advantage to local farmers in fetching them higher prices for their crops. Responding to a query, she said the company would not deal in commodities/crops like wheat and cotton subsidised by the government.