The Hindu Business Line : Sharp fall in pepper futures

Vietnam has reportedly reduced its prices to $1,850 a tonne (C&F), while Indonesia was offering at $1,800 as against India's parity of $1,825 a tonne (C&F). Besides, in Vietnam there are said to be sellers of ASTA grade.

No business took place last week. Bearish reports, in fact, pushed down the futures prices, market sources told Business Line.

As the July delivery is nearing maturity there would be liquidation by bulls, leading to a drop in prices and that in turn will influence the other positions also, they said.

July delivery dropped by Rs 115 a quintal on NCDEX on Monday to close at Rs 7,507 from Rs 7,622 on Saturday.

On NMCE, it fell by Rs 203 to close at Rs 7,451 from Rs 7,654 a quintal.

The decline on NCDEX for all the other positions was from Rs 140 to Rs 175 a quintal while on NMCE, it was from Rs 180 to Rs 218.

The total turn over on NCDEX on Monday stood at 4,546 tonne as against 2,246 tonne showing an increase of 2,300 tonne.On NMCE also the turnover increased by 607 tonne to 1,424 tonne from 817 tonne last Saturday.

The open interest on NCDEX was 17,526 tonne as against 17,459 tonne at last weekend close where as, on NMCE it was 3,098 tonne compared to 3,106 tonne.

The outstanding position for July and August on NCDEX was 3,722 tonne and 7,088 tonne respectively.

Spot decline

In tandem with the fall in the futures market the spot prices also marked a drop by Rs 100 from that of last weekend to close at Rs 7,100 (un-garbled) and Rs 7,500 (MG 1). But, there was no selling pressure.

Major exporting firms were, however, buying whatever little quantity available in the primary markets.