The Hindu Business Line : Bears pull down pepper futures

Kochi, Aug 07 The pepper futures market continued to witness high volatility on Thursday. The market traded easier and closed lower on bearish activities. All the contracts declined on NCDEX. August was down by Rs 62 a quintal, while the drop in others was from Rs 28 to Rs 78 a quintal.

Turnover fell by about 47 per cent (3,724 tonnes) to close at 4,169 tonnes. However, the open interest in the declining market moved up by 325 tonnes to 19,909 tonnes.

Despite the decline in the futures market, the Indian parity in the international market remained higher at $3,625 - 3,650 a tonne as the rupee remained stronger against the dollar.

Add to this, “the increase in the interest rate for export credit to 10-10.5 per cent from nine per cent has weakened our export competitiveness as it is also pushing up our cost making our product non-competitive,” market sources told Business Line.

Port Strike

There was no ready selling. Exporters appear to be abstaining from taking delivery because of the sub-standard quality of the material, which if taken delivery, they fear, would require re-processing and that in turn would push up the cost, they said.

On the other hand, the lightening strike at the Kochi port also contributed to the slowdown in export buying.

Global market

Spot prices remained steady at Wednesday’s level of Rs 13,900 (un-garbled) and Rs 14,500 (MG 1) a quintal.Vietnam pepper was reportedly steady. FAQ 500 GL on Thursday was quoted at $2,700-2,800 a tonne fob while FAQ 550 GL was at around $2,900- 2,970 a tonne fob.

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