The pepper market witnessed a mixed trend on Wednesday after showing high volatility with the Dec contract moving up while others declining marginally on limited activities.

The market opened with Jan contract moving up sharply to the highest levels while Dec opened on an easier note and fell to the lowest price and remained volatile in the forenoon and afternoon and in the closing session Jan touched the lowest levels while Dec rose to the highest levels.

Turn over dropped sharply while there was some additional buying in Dec. People were seem to be loosing interest in the market, trade sources told Business Line.

Those having commitments were buying Dec. As there was no premium available those “genuine hedgers/investors” who were having stocks and against which sales on Dec delivery and did not want to carry forward were opting for delivery. They are said to be holding validity expired and farm grade pepper stocks which they were offering to the market and buying back their sales, they said.

Some were offering Rs 6 a kg below Dec delivery price while exporters said to have bought validity expired stocks at Rs 3 below the Jan price.

Because of an alleged lacuna in transit time to get the bill for the money paid for the stocks against delivery, small and medium players were claimed to be getting out of the market by taking delivery outside the exchange platform.

An estimated around 4,000 tonnes of validity stocks of pepper are available on the exchange platform and an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes are available in validity expired and farm grade form, they claimed.

Dec contract on the NCDEX moved up by Rs135 to close at Rs35,250 a quintal. Jan and Feb declined by Rs 5 and Rs65 respectively to close at Rs 34,905 and Rs 34,850 a quintal.

Total turn over fell by 1,938 tonnes to 1,602 tonnes. Total open interest moved up by 195 tonnes to 11,480 tonnes.

Dec open interest increased by 179 tonnes to 9,727 tonnes. Jan declined by 4 tonnes to 1,270 tonnes while Feb moved up by 3 tonnes to 261 tonnes.

Spot prices on limited activities remained unchanged at previous levels of Rs33,200 (ungarbled) and Rs34,700 (MG 1) a quintal.

Indian parity in the international market stayed competitive at $7,150 - $7,200 a tonne (c&f) as all other origins were ruling above the Indian parity. However, overseas buyers are on a wait probably waiting for the Vietnamese new crop to arrive, they said.

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