The Hindu Business Line : Pepper futures decline marginally

Investors, who were actively buying, slowed down and reduced the premium they were offering for January. In fact, the activities are confined to the exchanges, investors and the processors.

There was neither any demand from overseas nor there were any domestic buyers on the exchanges. New arrivals also narrowed down as the sellers were holding back.

International market ruled firm but much below the Indian parity. “In fact, we are holding the umbrella for others to market their produce”, market sources here told Business Line.

Meanwhile, according to a report from Vietnam the prices are unlikely to decline even after the beginning of harvesting there as after some years, the farmers are now rich due to high prices of coffee, pepper and rubber. “They only sell when they like or they think this is good prices, many people can now hold their produce for long at houses, and this turn makes traders very much unpredicted!!! Nowadays one cannot be sure like before that good crop would push prices down, bad crop would push it up. Add to this, Indian speculators make markets more complicated”.

The current crop in Vietnam, according to the report, is more or less 90,000 tonne and after TET holidays from 6 - 11 Feb 2008 the arrivals will be in full swing.

CONTRACT POSITION

January contract on NCDEX declined by Rs 49 a quintal on Wednesday to close at Rs 14,278 from Rs 14,327. The fall in all other contracts except June was from Rs 19 to Rs 41 a quintal. June moved up by Rs 33 a quintal.

On NMCE January contract dropped by Rs 17 a quintal to close at Rs 14,010 from Rs 14,027.

The drop in other contracts was from Rs 8 to Rs 39 a quintal.

Turnover dips

Total turnover on NCDEX fell sharply by 8,359 tonne to 13,725 tonne while that on NMCE dropped by 649 tonne to 1,308 tonne.

Total open interest on NCDEX declined by 64 tonne to 21,739 tonne. January and February positions dropped by 14 per cent and 49 per cent respectively while March moved up by 24 per cent.

On NMCE total open interest moved up by 40 tonne to 1,667 tonne.

Spot prices

Spot prices dropped by Rs 100 a quintal on Wednesday to close at Rs 13,500 (un-garbled) and Rs 14,100 (MG 1).