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Pepper futures on Thursday fell on bearish sentiments created by various factors such as proposed rise in freight, continuous strengthening of the rupee against the dollar. The tug of war continued today between the bulls and bears and eventually the latter got into the driving seat aided by the currency factor and the reported hike in the freight. Consequently, all the contracts declined.
Arrivals
However, arrivals in Vietnam has not yet picked up because of delay in harvesting caused by recent rains. Add to this, heavy pepper above 550 GL was not being sold by Vietnam. They were said to be offering 500 GL at $4,950 (f.o.b.). The international operators, using the rains and delayed harvesting as a ploy were pushing the Vietnam prices up after covering good quantities, they said.
Virtually there were no arrivals in the markets here from the primary markets i.e., from both the growers and dealers except for some offerings from Karnataka where the sellers were ready to sell at Rs 232-235 a kg anywhere in India, they said.
Overseas buyers who were waiting for the prices decline said to have missed the bus and may have to buy now. Since heavy pepper supply continued to remain squeezed from Vietnam, they might turn towards India for April-May shipments if the Indian prices stabilised and became competitive. Indian parity at present is at $5,700-5,725 a tonne (c&f), they said.
Domestic buying is also expected to commence from April 4, they said.
April contract on the NCDEX dropped Rs 235 to close at Rs 24,594 a quintal. May and June also fell by Rs 209 and Rs 118 respectively to close at Rs 24,981 and Rs 25,241 a quintal.
April open interest dropped 545 tonnes while that of May increased 277 tonnes indicating switching over. June declined by 34 tonnes. Total turn over dropped 1,564 tonnes to close at 9,058 tonnes. Total open interest dropped 293 tonnes showing liquidation/switching over.
Spot prices
Spot prices tandem with the futures market trend declined by Rs 200 despite having no selling pressure to Rs 23,000 (ungarbled) and Rs 23,800 (MG 1) a quintal.
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