The Hindu Business Line : Speculative buying pushes up chilli futures

Mumbai, April 9 Pepper for April delivery on NCDEX hit the upper circuit of 6 per cent to close at Rs 16,135 per quintal, while the May contract rose 5.89 per cent to

Rs 16,640 per quintal on the back of strong international prices.

"Production in Vietnam, Brazil and India are expected to be much lower than last year. Moreover, there are unconfirmed reports that there are good export enquiries," said a trader.

Speculative buying pushed chilli futures on NCDEX up 1.67 per cent to Rs

6,218 per quintal even as spot prices in Guntur quoted lower at Rs 5,100 per quintal on Monday against Thursday's Rs 5,250. Arrivals improved to 1.25 lakh bags (of 50 kg) against 60,000 bags on Friday.

Chana futures gained 2.37 per cent to Rs 2,417 per quintal as Government revised the country's production estimates at 59.6 lakh tonnes against its earlier estimate of 61.25 lakh tonnes.

Mentha oil futures on MCX moved up 2.36 per cent to Rs 593 per kg as stockists were holding back the stock in anticipation of higher prices.

Potato up

Potato Tarkeshwar futures jumped 1.28 per cent to Rs 568 per quintal on profit booking.

Cloudy weather in Kerala pulled down cardamom futures 3.62 per cent to Rs 493 per kg. Castorseed and barley futures on NCDEX were down

1.26 per cent and 1.73 per cent to Rs 429 per kg and Rs 876.20 per quintal. Sugar futures dipped 1.18 per cent to Rs 1,422 per quintal.

NCDEX registered a turnover of Rs 4,112 crore up to 5 pm (Rs 2,495 crore, up to 2 p.m.) on 125,950 trades (79,677) while on MCX it was Rs 2,378 crore up to 5 pm (Rs 632 crore, up to 2 p.m.) on 49,752 (19,078) trades.

Active trades were seen in chana, pepper, guarseeds, refined soya oil, jeera and gold.