Pepper market after witnessing high volatility till the evening ended marginally above the previous day's closing on bullish trends.

The bears' efforts to pull down the market by propagating that the Vietnam market was easier failed and when the real position was known the bulls got activated, took control and pushed the market up.

There were reportedly only limited sellers in Vietnam and they were not said to be ready to lower their prices. In fact, nearly 50 per cent of the Vietnamese new crop has been shipped out at higher prices and hence the farmers are reportedly not interested to sell at lower prices, trade sources told Business Line .

The end users world over are also reportedly not covered fully. They were also not maintaining any inventory because of the high prices and consequent huge investment involved. Hence they have been covering only hand to mouth. Buyers are, in fact, waiting for the prices to ease.

In the futures market, activities were limited as is evident from the volume traded today.

Dull spot trade

On the spot there was no activity as the State was observing a “hartal” demanding a ban on Endosulfan.

May contract on NCDEX moved up by Rs 144 to close at Rs 28,533 a quintal. June and July went up by Rs 168 and Rs 112 respectively to close at Rs 29,112 and Rs 29,556 a quintal.

Total turn over fell by 5,169 tonnes to close at 8,911 tonnes. Total open interest also fell by 593 tonnes to 16,896 tonnes and yet the market moved up.

May open interest dropped by 706 tonnes to 9,742 tonnes while that of June went up by 163 tonnes to 6,193 tonnes. July declined by 52 tonnes to 711 tonnes.

Spot prices remained unchanged in the absence of activities at Rs 26,900 (ungarbled) and Rs 27,700 (MG 1) a quintal.

Indian parity in the international market remained at $6,750 a tonne (c&f) and nearly in line with other origins, they said.

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