The Hindu Business Line : Pepper futures rebound

Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Mar 31, 2007 ePaper

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Agri-Biz & Commodities - Spices & Condiments
Pepper futures rebound

G.K. Nair

Kochi March 30 Pepper futures, which fell on speculation that the Centre was cutting Customs duty, bounced back strongly on Friday.

"It appears to be an unsuccessful attempt by some operators," market observers told Business Line.

Those who sold on Thursday were unsuccessfully trying to buy back. International market continued to remain firm with not much let up.

Not a buyers market

Default is said to be taking place in Vietnam for the March shipments for want of adequate supply.

Prices of all the origins except India continued to rule steady at previous levels. There are no sellers.

Indian prices are already high now at $3,300 a tonne (c&f). Strong rupee against dollar has also contributed to this phenomenon.

The current situation signals that unlike in the past it is no more a buyers market, they said.

Investors were selling futures and buying exchange delivered material.

On the other hand, the processors were buying farm grade pepper.

As the materials are not moving out the stock is being piled up, they pointed out.

April contract on NCDEX shot up by Rs 427 a quintal on Friday to Rs 13,838.

The increase in other contracts was from Rs 489 to Rs 589 a quintal.

April contract on NMCE went up by Rs 347 a quintal to Rs13,400.

The rise in other contracts was from Rs 382 to Rs 554 a quintal.

Turnover up

The total turnover on NCDEX moved up by 2,829 tonnes to 45,680 tonnes, while on NMCE it increased by 1,046 tonnes to 6,683 tonnes.

The total open interest on NCDEX dropped by 775 tonnes to 28,103 tonnes.

April position fell by 1,290 tonnes to 6,273 tonnes. May dropped by 199 tonnes to 13,703 tonnes while June moved up by 624 tonnes to 5,426 tonnes.

Open interest

On NMCE total open interest went up by 22 tonnes to 4,507 tonnes.

April position was at 317 tonnes while May at 2,841 tonnes.

Spot prices

The strong domestic demand and in tandem with the futures market trend spot prices shot up further by Rs 300 a quintal to close on Friday at Rs 12,700 (un-garbled) and Rs 13,300 (MG 1).