The pepper futures market on Monday fell on selling pressure/liquidation and bearish activities and all the contracts dropped. ?There was a calculated move to bring down the market because of the financial year ending,? market sources told Business Line .

Adding to this, there is tight checking at the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka borders by the Kerala State Sales Tax department officials tax evasion as a result black pepper was being moved to the terminal market and afloat business was taking place. Leading exporters were covering. Some 25 ? 30 tonnes were reportedly traded here while 15 ? 20 tonnes were traded in Kozhikode, they said.

Introduction of delivery margin of 3 per cent over and above the 10 per cent margin from today is appeared to have compelled those who were speculatively holding positions either to liquidate or switch over to April, they said. ?This phenomenon was mainly responsible for the fall in the prices,? they said.

March contract on NCDEX declined by Rs 203 to close at Rs 22,150 a quintal. April and May contracts dropped by Rs 228 and Rs 197 respectively to close at Rs 22,593 and Rs 22,838 a quintal. Total turn over increased by 3,109 tonnes to 7,508 tonnes. Total open interest fell by 146 tonnes to close at 13,781 tonnes showing liquidation.

March open interest fell by 565 tonnes to 4,886 tonnes while that of April and May moved up by 399 tonnes and 18 tonnes respectively to 7,903 tonnes and 774 tonnes.

Spot prices remained unchanged on thin activities at the previous level of Rs 21,700 (ungarbled) and Rs 22,500 (MG 1) a quintal.

In the international market Indian parity declined to $5,175 a tonne (c&f) and selected overseas buying interest was seen. There has been a reported supply squeeze in the overseas market because of alleged delaying or defaulting by Indonesia and Vietnam, they said.

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