Back Pepper contracts turn hot
G.K. Nair
Kochi , May 10
The pepper futures market made a U-turn on Wednesday with prices shooting up on reports that a cap is likely to be fixed on imports from Sri Lanka.
The speculators were active and the turnover was also on the increase. The sellers went for the "Badla". They were buying back May and switching over to June and July, which would give them a good return ranging from Rs 3 to Rs 5 a kg. The bulls were liquidating yesterday. Consequently, the open interest for May dropped by 723 tonnes on Wednesday.
However, spot sellers withdrew from the market expecting the prices to move up further. Short supply was evident from the interest shown by the buyers for the pepper held by the Kerala Government procurement agency, Marketfed, which is planning to auction around 3,000 tonnes.
Talks with Pakistan
Added to this, reports of possible negotiations with Pakistan for reduction in the 32-per cent duty charged by it on Indian pepper to the level of 5 per cent levied on Vietnam pepper, also have changed the market sentiment as the annual intake of Pakistan is an estimated 10,000 tonnes.International market continues to be silent. Even at low prices they did not buy and now the situation has changed. Vietnam price is said to have been better by $25 a tonne. Prices of other origins remain at the previous levels.
Spot prices up
Spot prices moved up by Rs 100 a quintal to 6,550 (un-garbled) and Rs 6,950 (MG 1).
Last traded price for May position on NCDEX shot up by Rs 223 a quintal to Rs 6,828 from Rs 6,605 on Tuesday, while on NMCE it moved by Rs 211 to Rs 6,640 from Rs 6,429. The increase in LTP for other positions on NCDEX was between Rs 262 to Rs 280 a quintal. On NMCE, it was from Rs 150 to Rs 190 a quintal. The total turn over on NCDEX shot up by 6,003 tonnes to 9,286 tonnes from 3,283 tonnes on Tuesday, whereas on NMCE it moved up from 564 tonnes to 1,168 tonnes.
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