The Hindu Business Line : Uptrend continues in pepper

Kochi, Oct. 8 Pepper futures market continued its upward swing from last Friday and the prices, in that sequence, shot up on Monday on good domestic demand coupled with bullish activities.

Because of the festival season and the winter in North India, domestic buying activity was witnessed and large quantity of black pepper moved out from the primary markets in northern Kerala to other States at terminal market prices, market sources told Business Line. This pushed up the futures to such a level that it has moved above the prices of other origins at $3,600-$3,650 a tonne (c&f).

Spot also up

As a result, spot prices also increased by Rs 300 a quintal. Arrivals at the terminal market were negligible, they said.

Last week, some overseas demand was witnessed from Europe and business took place, they said. Some more orders are expected in the coming days but, meanwhile, “we have become out-priced”, they claimed.

Vietnam was reportedly slightly better at the weekend and Indonesia was also expected to move up under the influence of the futures market trend here apart from the prevailing tight supply position, they said.

October contract on NCDEX moved up by Rs 249 a quintal on Monday to Rs 13,020. The increase in other contracts was from Rs 303 to Rs 490 a quintal.

On NMCE, the October contract increased by Rs 212 a quintal to Rs 12,800. The rise in other contracts was from Rs 347 to Rs 528 a quintal.

Total turnover on NCDEX increased by 832 tonnes to 22,774 tonnes while that for October fell by 11 per cent and November increased by 72 per cent.

On NMCE, total turnover went up by 947 tonnes to 3,114 tonnes.

Total open interest on NCDEX moved up by 301 tonnes to 20,453 tonnes. October position dropped by 25 per cent. November and December positions increased by 43 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.

On NMCE, total open interest moved up by 30 tonnes to 2,209 tonnes. October position declined by 106 tonnes to 794 tonnes.

Spot prices on good domestic demand shot up by Rs 300 a quintal on Monday to close at Rs 12,400 (un-garbled) and Rs 13,000 (MG 1).