Pepper futures went up on Tuesday after the usual volatility on good buying support and bullish sentiments. The bull operators were allegedly trying to push up the market and it touched the highest price of the day and then declined at end but remained above the previous closing.

Overall buying interest was there in spite of the financial year drawing to a close, market sources told Business Line .

Good buying interest was seen for Malabar. Buyers were seen covering April at the current prices having realised that they “had missed the bus in February and March”, they said.

In fact, exporters bought good quantity from the spot at Rs 225 – Rs 227 a kg.

Cash-rich exporters seem to have taken over the role of investors and were said to be buying spot and selling futures, sources said. Some were buying even at higher levels.

All these factors pushed up the futures market, they said.

April contract on NCDEX went up by Rs 118 to close at Rs 23,673 a quintal. May and June moved up by Rs 149 and Rs 2 respectively to close at Rs 23,967 and Rs 24,198 a quintal.

Total turnover dropped by 2,467 tonnes to close at 8,289 tonnes.

Total open interest increased by 121 tonnes to 11,045 tonnes showing additional buying.

April open interest

April open interest dropped by 72 tonnes to 9,126 tonnes while that of May and June moved up by 184 tonnes and 9 tonnes respectively to close at 1,615 tonnes and 189 tonnes.

Spot prices, however, remained steady on matching demand and supply at previous levels of Rs 22,100 (ungarbled) and Rs 229 (MG 1) a quintal.

Indian parity in the international market moved up on rise in futures market coupled with strengthening of the rupee against the dollar to $5,350 a tonne (c&f) and remained competitive, they said.

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