Date:25/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/07/25/stories/2006072500221300.htm

Back Pepper futures continue to rise

G.K. Nair

Kochi , July 24

Pepper futures market continued to soar on buying support at a time when there are no sellers.

Indonesia, the only other source where harvesting is round the corner, is said to have raised its prices further to $2,025 a tonne (c&f) while Indian parity is at $2,125 a tonne (c&f). . The price of Vietnam is $2,300 per tonne (c&f) but no sellers.

They expressed apprehensions that Sri Lankan pepper being imported at $1,700/tonne for processing and re-export might be shipped out as Indian produce besides being pushed into the domestic market. The only way to do that is to allow the imports of pepper from Sri Lanka through a single port, they said.

Turnover up

August contract went up by Rs 254 a quintal on NCDEX on Monday to close at Rs 8,895 from Rs 8,641 on Saturday. On NMCE, it rose by Rs 414 to close at Rs 9,070 from Rs 8,656 a quintal. Other positions on NCDEX increased by Rs 250 to Rs 306 a quintal, while on the NMCE the increase was from Rs 279 to Rs 471 a quintal.

The total turnover on NCDEX increased by 5,799 to 23,029 tonnes from 17,230 tonnes at last weekend close. On NMCE, it went up by 2,086 tonnes to 4,774 tonnes.

Open interest

The total open interest on NCDEX on Monday was 18,231 as against 17,063 tonnes last Saturday, while on NMCE it was at 3,971 tonnes compared with 3,455 tonnes.

The outstanding position for August, September and October on NCDEX was 7,491 tonnes, 3,559 tonnes and 4,735 tonnes respectively. In tandem with the rise in futures prices and consequent to the tight supply position the spot prices also shot up by Rs 250 a quintal to close at Rs 8,300 (un-garbled) and Rs 8,700 (MG 1) on Monday.