The National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), which has launched e-series platform to invest in commodities, is planning to launch 20 more commodities in metals and agriculture by the end of the current year.

The new commodities in metals included platinum, nickel, steel, etc and black pepper, castor seed, menthol oil in agriculture, which will be launched by August this year, Mr Anjani Sinha, Managing Director and CEO, NSEL, said.

Mr Sinha, who was here in connection with an investor awareness programme in the State, pointed out that the e-series products in gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead etc during the last year received encouraging response from retail investors. E-gold, which has completed one year trading, has offered an annualised return of 23 per cent with the total turnover since launch recording Rs10,843.12crore as on March 15 with 2,55,191 trade between March 17, 2010 to March 15, 2011. E-silver and e-copper has given an annualised return of 99.4 per cent and 43.7 per cent respectively, he said. Since there is no storage cost, e-gold and e-silver have emerged as the best instruments for small investors, who wish to take advantage of huge appreciation in gold and silver as witnessed recently. The maximum investment of gold is from south India. The NSEL has also tied up with Gitanjali Jewellers for conversion of e-gold into jewellery, he said adding, that reputed other jewellery houses will be connected to this process as the company expects maximum participation in e-gold.

According to Mr Sinha, the e-series platform was launched to enable larger section of retail investors to invest in commodities. This is a very useful product for portfolio diversification for HNI's and for systematic investment in commodities for small and retail investors. The scope of investment in this sector is huge and the objective is to ensure that timely information on price and other exchange details are available to people in an easy and convenient manner. “We believe that the recently-launched mobile portal is a step towards helping us achieve this objective”, he added.

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