Pepper market showed a mixed trend on Thursday as activities were limited and as a result November and February moved up slightly while December dropped slightly.

“Still some have apprehensions about depositing the material even though things are smooth at the warehouses ever since the FMC representatives came to study what was happening,” market sources told Business Line .

There was a lot of switching over to December and additional buying today, they said..

The operators appear to “be caught up,” they said. The prices have not shot up as they anticipated because the new crop is expected to trickle in from mid-December and it will be in full swing from January.

Looking at this possibility, domestic dealers were buying only hand to mouth, they said. Besides, systematic liquidation was there earlier by growers and dealers when the prices were ruling above Rs410 a kg, they claimed.

Arrival of farm grade pepper today stood at eight tonnes and of this six tonnes were traded.

Nov contract on the NCDEX moved up by Rs 35 to close at Rs 41,420 a quintal while December declined by Rs 70 to close at Rs 40,785 a quintal. February increased by Rs 20 to close at Rs 36,540 a quintal.

Turnover

Total turnover moved up by 53 tonnes to 1,595 tonnes while the total open interest went up by 151 tonnes showing good additional buying.

November open interest decreased by 102 tonnes to 1,316 tonnes while that of Dec and Feb increased by 204 tonnes and 46 tonnes indicating good switching over from November to December.

Spot prices remained unchanged at the previous level of Rs 39,200 (ungarbled) and Rs 40,700 (MG 1) a quintal on limited activities.

Indian parity in the international market remained at $7,800 a tonne (c&f) Europe and $8,100 a tonne (c&f) US and still remained much above other origins, they said.

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