Pepper moved up marginally on buying support despite bearish propaganda to pull down, cued by reports of easier market in Vietnam.

However, the report from Vietnam today said that some cheap pepper was traded yesterday at slightly lower levels but today it was sold at $7,325 a tonne (f.o.b.) HCMC up by $75 a tonne.

Leading European dealers were said to be spreading bearish sentiments. But locally here availability is very much limited and the north-east monsoon of late in the growing areas of southern districts, where from the first arrivals normally start, might delay the harvesting, trade sources claimed. What is available, at present, are validity-expired stocks and farm grade pepper held by the investors who are holding it against their sales on the exchange. When they cover futures then they might sell it on the spot, market sources told Business Line.

The farmers and dealers were not interested to sell at the current prices, they said.

Therefore, no activities were there on the spot market, they said.

Performance

Nov contract on NCDEX moved up Rs 10 to close at Rs 35,910 a quintal. Dec and Jan were up Rs 35 and Rs 385 respectively to close at Rs 36,270 and Rs 36,550 a quintal.

Total turn over dropped 118 tonnes to 4,796 tonnes. Total open interest moved up 270 tonnes to 11,181 tonnes indicating additional buying.

Nov open interest increased by 142 tonnes to 9,417 tonnes while that of Dec and Jan also moved up by 114 tonnes and 14 tonnes respectively to close at Rs1,522 tonnes and 126 tonnes.

Spot prices on good demand amid limited availability moved up Rs 100 to close at Rs 34,000 (ungarbled) and Rs 35,500 (MG 1) a quintal.

Indian parity in the international market was very competitive at $7,700 a tonne (c&f) for Europe and $8,000 a tonne (c&f) for the US. Weakening of the rupee against the dollar also aided the decline in parity, they said.

Exporters are not quoting because of the wild fluctuation in prices on the futures market and the currency, they said, adding, however, some are covering against firm orders.

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