Pepper futures continued their southward journey on Thursday also on bearish sentiments and liquidation. The market was highly volatile, as usual. Domestic and export demand were low as buyers did not want to cover. There was a sharp fall in the turnover. Speculators pushed up January parity very high recently. Switching over to February and March were 78 tonnes and 12 tonnes respectively while 199 tonnes of pepper were liquidated.

New crop arrivals

Arrivals of new crop at the terminal market were only 40 bags. However, 50 tonnes of old crop were reportedly traded. Primary market dealers sold to exporters at Rs 215-216 a kg. The masala industry has been buying but was not keeping any inventory because of the huge cost involved following high prices for all the spices such as turmeric, cumin, chilly, pepper etc. February contract on NCDEX fell Rs 200 to close at Rs 22,313 a quintal. March and April dropped Rs 211 and Rs 288 respectively to close at Rs 22,692 and Rs 23,061 a quintal. Total turnover dropped substantially by 4,409 tonnes to 5,956 tonnes.

Total open interest fell by 199 tonnes to 11,444 tonnes. February open interest dropped by 283 tonnes to 9,177 tonnes while that of March and April moved up by 78 tonnes and 12 tonnes to close at 1,717 tonnes and 407 tonnes.

Spot prices

Spot prices dropped by Rs 100 to close at Rs 21,200 (ungarbled) and Rs 22,000 (MG 1) a quintal in tandem with the futures market trend. Indian parity in the international market was at $5,125 a tonne (c&f) and remained competitive.

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