The pepper market moved up on bullish sentiments created by circular trading on Tuesday and consequently all the active contracts ended much above the previous day’s closing.

Despite sharp fall in the open interest, the market moved up. As much as 602 tonnes have been marked for staggered delivery and a total of 1,061 tonnes have been marked so far, market sources told Business Line .

Bull cartel

The bull operators' cartel appears to be desperately trying to push up the market, they said. They are allegedly trying to corner 4,000 - 5,000 tonnes of pepper by squeezing the market with the intention to monopolise it.

Arrivals from the primary markets have picked up and 38 tonnes of farm grade pepper arrived and that were traded at Rs 405, 407 and 411 a kg, depending on the quality, grade and area of production.

According to the trade on an average around 70 tonnes of pepper are being deposited in the exchange daily.

October contract on the NCDEX increased by Rs 410 to the last traded price (LTP) of Rs 43,700 a quintal. November and December contracts went up by Rs 270 and 810 respectively to the LTP of Rs 43,555 and 42,735 a quintal.

Turnover

Total turnover increased by 1,733 tonnes to close at 2,619 tonnes. Total open interest decreased by 394 tonnes to 7,250 tonnes.

October open interest fell by 623 tonnes to close at 2,185 tonnes while November and December moved up by 176 tonnes and 34 tonnes respectively to close at 3,818 tonnes and 882 tonnes.

Spot prices increased in tandem with the futures market trend by Rs200 to close at Rs40,200 (ungarlbed) and Rs41,700 (MG 1) a quintal.

Indian parity in the international market declined despite increase in the futures prices following weakening of the rupee against the dollar today. Based on Oct prices it was at $8,550 a tonne (c&f) while based on Nov and Dec prices it would be at $8,475 and $8,300 a tonne (c&f) respectively, they said.

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