The Hindu Business Line : Speculative buying buoys pepper

Kochi, Jan. 3 Pepper futures market went up sharply on Thursday on speculative buying by bull operators following a series of “buy calls” from technical experts.

The arrivals of new crop have not yet taken place even after the beginning of January. Normally, it used to come by November-end. There seems to be feeling among the dealers of a low crop this season, market observers told Business Line.

Reports from southern district of Kerala were predicting a drop of 30 to 40 per cent. The oleoresin industry could manage to buy about 300 tonne of light berries from this region.

The Kerala State Cooperative Marketing Federation (Marketfed), the Government procurement agency, would auction 50 tonnes of pepper of year before last stock on Friday. More buyers are expected at the auction given the current tight supply position.

Indian parity on Thursday has gone up above $3,700 a tonne (c&f) while the prices of all origins remained steady at lower levels. “We are therefore out priced”, they said.

CONTRACT POSITION

January contract on NCDEX increased by Rs 252 a quintal on Thursday to Rs 13,633. The increase in other contracts was from Rs 246 to Rs 364 a quintal.

On NMCE, January contract went up by Rs 275 a quintal to Rs 13,585. The rise in other contracts was from Rs 32 to Rs 292 a quintal.

Total turnover on NCDEX shot up by 7,559 tonnes to 16,939 tonnes, while that of January and February increased by 14 per cent and 74 per cent respectively.

On NMCE, total turnover went up by 635 tonnes to 1,509 tonnes.

Total open interest on NCDEX dropped by 89 tonnes to 19,157 tonnes.

Spot prices in tandem with the futures market trend moved up by Rs 100 a quintal on Thursday to close at Rs 13,000 (un-garbled) and Rs 13,600 (MG 1).