The Hindu Business Line : Buying support props up pepper futures

Kochi, Aug. 2 The pepper futures market, which has been witnessing a decline for the last three days, moved up on Thursday on some buying support and bullish activities.

Reports that Vietnam has moved up by $50 a tonne has also contributed to the upward move. Vietnam was offering 500 GL at $3,375 a tonne (f.o.b) while V Asta at $3,700 a tonne (f.o.b).

Besides, there was some buying support from the overseas market. Exporters were interested to cover at lower levels. Unconfirmed reports said that Indonesian exporters had covered MG 1 from India. Harvesting in Brazil and Indonesia has commenced and yet the trend in the world market is bullish, market sources said.

Selling, arrivals

There was no selling pressure on spot. Arrivals at the primary market were virtually nil, and as a result the operators in the primary market were finding it difficult to get replacement, they said.

According to them excessive speculation is hampering the futures market. The major contributor to the high volatility is the intra-day trade while the cartels are pulling down and pushing up the market, they said.

There is a propaganda campaign going on that huge stocks are available with the exchanges and outside aimed at pushing the prices down. But, it does not seem to have made any impact on the growers. They are not ready to part with their produce at the current price, the sources said.

Contract position

August contract on NCDEX on Thursday moved up by Rs 95 a quintal to close at Rs 13,655 from Rs 13,560 on Wednesday. The increase in other contracts was from Rs 107 to Rs 163 a quintal.

On NMCE, August contract went up by Rs 89 a quintal to close at Rs 13,418 from Rs 13,329. September and October increased by Rs 87 and Rs 120 a quintal while December and January declined by Rs 87 and Rs 108 respectively.

Total turnover on NCDEX dropped by 1,810 tonnes to 19,909 tonnes, while on NMCE, it declined by 301 tonnes to 1,406 tonnes.

Total open interest on NCDEX increased by 313 tonnes to 25,563 tonnes. August position dropped by 174 tonnes to 6,186 tonnes. September and October went up by 250 tonnes and 185 tonnes to 13,151 tonnes and 3,871 tonnes respectively.

On NMCE, total open interest remained unchanged at 2,463 tonnes. However, August position declined by 66 tonnes to 1,310 tonnes.

Spot prices ruled steady at previous levels at Rs 13,500 (un-garbled) and Rs 14,100 (MG 1) a quintal on Thursday.