The pepper market on Tuesday witnessed a mixed trend with one of the active contracts moving up while two others dropping on bearish sentiments.

There was liquidation in September and October while some switching over was seen in November.

Under staggered delivery system 247 tonnes of pepper were delivered leaving a balance of 158 tonnes in Sep. On October 5, validity of 806 tonnes would expire.

Rumours are there in the market that some sort of arrangements are likely to be made for taking delivery of this material and that would be re-processed and re-deposited, market sources told Business Line .

They said that reports of good crop in Karnataka this year has created a bearish sentiment in the market and that in turn resulted in north Indian stockists liquidating their stocks at Rs 385-395 a kg.

Arrivals on the spot continued to be thin. Only five tonnes of material arrived and that were traded.

Immature green pepper suitable for making pepper in brine and dehydrated green pepper are reportedly being bought from Pathanamthitta district by the industry at Rs 135-150 a kg.

September contract on the NCDEX increased by Rs 115 a quintal to the last traded price (LTP) of Rs 42,450 a quintal. Oct and Nov were down by Rs150 and Rs115 respectively to the LTP of Rs 42,910 and Rs 42,850 a quintal.

Turnover

Total turnover decreased by 489 tonnes to 768 tonnes. Total open interest dropped by 247 tonnes indicating liquidation to 6,722 tonnes.

September open interest dropped by 263 tonnes while that of Oct by 13 tonnes respectively to 158 tonnes and 5,765 tonnes. Nov moved up by 23 tonnes to 684 tonnes.

Spot prices remained unchanged at previous levels of Rs39,600 (ungarbled) and Rs41,100 (garbled) a quintal.

Indian parity in the international market was at $8,100 a tonne (c&f) Europe and $8,400 a tonne (c&f) for the US and remained nearly $1,000 a tonne above other origins which were hovering at $7,000 tonne.

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