The Hindu Business Line : Pepper futures rule steady

Pepper futures market ruled steady with marginal fluctuations, while there wasn't much activity. There was no arrival of spot pepper and new pepper is likely to arrive only after the year-end holidays.

However, Kerala procurement agency Kerala State Marketing Federation (Marketfed) has sold 100 tonnes of black pepper, which it procured last year, at Rs 9,500 a quintal. Of the two buyers one was a multi-national company having Vietnam operations. They might have bought it to cover December/January commitments, market observers said.

Contracts

Domestic demand has started picking up and the requirement at present is met from the primary markets such as Kannur, Mananthawady and Kalpetta in Kerala at Rs 9,200-Rs 9,300 a quintal. In the international market also not much activity was seen. Indian parity was at $2,475-2,500 a tonne (c&f). December contract on NCDEX matured on Thursday and 918 tonnes of pepper was delivered. The January contract fell by Rs 27 a quintal on Thursday to Rs 9,901. All the other contracts except April, which went up by Rs 35 a quintal to close at Rs 10,568 from Rs 10,533, declined and they ranged from Rs 9 to Rs 51.

On NMCE January contract declined by Rs 1 to close at Rs 9,555, while the drop in other positions were from Rs 25 to Rs 48 a quintal.

Turnover down

The total turnover on NCDEX fell by 2,430 tonnes to 7,218 tonnes from 9,648 tonnes on Wednesday. On NMCE it declined by 218 tonnes to 521 tonnes from 739 tonnes.

The total open interest on NCDEX fell by 1,019 tonnes to 20,897 tonnes from 21,916 tonnes. January net open position dropped by 248 tonnes to 11,733 tonnes while February moved up by 78 tonnes to 4,727 tonnes. On NMCE the total open interest was up by 21 tonnes to 3,349 tonnes. The January and February position were at 1,049 tonnes and 2,076 tonnes respectively.

The spot prices ruled steady at previous level of Rs 9,200 (un-garbled) and Rs 9,800 (MG 1) a quintal on Thursday.

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