The Hindu Business Line : Buying pepper futures at dips may help

The prices were moving up and down wildly without any change in the fundamentals but because of manipulation of the market and highly speculative activities. Prices in other regions by and large remained steady to firm throughout the week. Even some of them moved up during the week. Overseas buyers were on a wait and watch mode. However, there was some stray buying also.

The tight supply situation continued to persist and it was evident from the reluctance of sellers of late in Indonesia and Brazil where harvesting is already under way.

According to a latest report from Vietnam, export price of pepper ranged from $3,000-4,000 a tonnes on the world market due to thin supply caused by unfavourable weather conditions in large pepper-exporting countries like India, Brazil, Malaysia, China and Vietnam.

Quoting International Pepper Community (IPC) estimates, it said the world was facing limited supply of pepper “as supply is predicted to be 329,000 tonnes while the demand is 376,500 tonnes”.

However, prices in the exchanges here were highly volatile and that has led the buyers to loosing confidence in the market.

Projected shortfall in the world market and expected increase in the domestic demand here in view of the ensuing festival season and the winter there could be a squeeze in the availability in the country in the coming days. Add to this, the grinding industry would also be activating its buying machinery to cover its requirement. Given this scenario, it appears to be advantageous to buy when the prices dip.

FUTURES TREND

The increase on NCDEX during the week on all contracts was from Rs 384 to Rs 482 a quintal, while on NMCE it was from Rs 387 to Rs 789 a quintal except for December contract which fell by Rs 66 a quintal.

The open interest for September on NCDEX dropped by 1,539 tonnes to 5,013 tonnes at weekend close, while October went up by 646 tonnes to 11,429 tonnes. Open interest for September on NMCE declined by 151 tonnes to 472 tonnes, while October moved up by 77 tonnes to 1,507 tonnes during the week.

The total turnover on NCDEX increased by 20,737 tonnes to 1,46,429 tonnes, while that on NMCE went up by 7,613 tonnes to 17,615 tonnes.

Spot prices also moved up during the week by Rs 200 a quintal to Rs 12,200 (un-garbled) and Rs 12,800 (MG 1) at weekend close.

More Stories on : Spices & Condiments | Commodity Markets

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Monsoon harks back to early June settings

Coonoor tea prices decline

Leaf tea spurts at Kochi sale

Good demand at Kolkata tea sale

Gold may correct lower

Bearishness intact in cotton

Gold could make further headway

‘Develop new ELS cotton genotypes’

Steady trend in lint prices

Pattukottai declared a ‘coir cluster’

Soyabean meal exports likely to rise 10-15%

Buying pepper futures at dips may help

Good demand, short supply push up cardamom prices

Scheme to strengthen farm produce market

Milk prices drop Rs 4/litre in 2 months