Turnover of commodity exchanges fell over 42 per cent to Rs 51.26 lakh crore during the April-January period of this fiscal due to a sharp decline in the trade volumes of most commodities.

According to the Forward Markets Commission (FMC), these exchanges generated business worth Rs 89 lakh crore in the same period a year ago.

Maximum fall was witnessed in bullion followed by energy items, metals and agricultural commodities.

According to FMC data, turnover from bullion fell 53 per cent to Rs 18.26 lakh crore in the April-January period of this fiscal against Rs 38.73 lakh crore a year earlier.

Similarly, business from energy items like crude oil declined by 39 per cent to Rs 13.14 lakh crore from Rs 21.52 lakh crore, while the turnover in metals like copper dropped by over 32 per cent to Rs 10.63 lakh crore from Rs 15.70 lakh crore.

Turnover from agricultural commodities also fell 30 per cent to Rs 9.20 lakh crore in the April-January period of 2014-15 fiscal against Rs 13 lakh crore in the same period last year.

Trading volumes in the commodity futures market have been declining in the last couple of months due to lack of volatility in prices, which forced investors shift to stock market. Also, high transaction cost has affected the participation, experts said.

At present, four national and six regional level commodity exchanges operate in the country.

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