The Hindu Business Line : Pepper prices fall on selling pressure

All future deliveries fell sharply on account of this bearish operation, which had pushed the Indian prices to the lowest levels in the international market.

November contract on NCDEX fell by Rs 528 a quintal to close at Rs 9,945. The drop in other positions was from Rs 535 to Rs 647 a quintal.

On NMCE, November dropped by Rs 616 a quintal to close at Rs 9,657. The decline in other positions was from Rs 40 to Rs 620 a quintal.

November, December and January deliveries on NMCE fell to two-digit level a kg.

The total turnover on NCDEX increased by 10,022 tonnes to 33,616 tonnes, while that on NMCE was up by 2,540 tonnes to 6,798 tonnes.

Open interest up

The total open interest on NCDEX stood at 24,329 tonnes against 23,356 tonnes on Wednesday. Outstanding position for November increased by 251 tonnes to 7,120 tonnes, while that of December went up by 482 tonnes to 12,490 tonnes. The outstanding position for December on NMCE dropped by 53 tonnes to 3,961 tonnes.

Thus, the Indian parity for MG 1 has gone down to $2,550 a tonne (c&f) against Indonesia's $2,775 a tonne for L Asta and Brazil's $2,725 for B Asta (f.o.b).

As a result, good business was coming from overseas markets and most of the exporters were covering for November and December deliveries. However, beyond December they were not committing fearing that the export subsidy might not be available thereafter, market observers told Business Line.

"Domestic market is absolutely quiet and spot sellers were by and large inactive as they did not want to sell at the present rate," they said.

Spot prices fell sharply by Rs 400 a quintal in tandem with the futures market trend, to Rs 9,900 (ungarbled) and Rs 10,500 (MG 1) on Thursday.