Kotak Group-promoted ACE Commodity Exchange today kick started as the country's fifth national commodity bourse with the launch of futures trading in five agricultural items -- castor seed, chana, soyabean, mustard seed and refined soy oil.
In the opening hour of the trade, futures trading was more active in the December contracts of all five agri-commodities, though the November 2010 and January 2011 contracts were also available for traders.
According to the exchange data, the castor seed contract for December expiry opened at Rs 3,442 per quintal, chana at Rs 2,440 per quintal, soyabean at Rs 2,244 per quintal, mustard seed at Rs 573 per 20 kg and refined soy oil at Rs 545.90 per ten kg.
At 11 hours, the trade volumes in the December contract of soybean was 144 tonnes, refined soy oil at 76 tonnes, chana at 59 tonnes, castor seed at 60 tonnes and mustard seed at 35 tonnes.
The exchange, which has upgraded itself to a national exchange from a regional exchange, earlier Ahmedabad Commodity Exchange, has applied with the sector regulator Forward Market Commission (FMC) for permission to offer non-agricultural items like crude, gold and bullion.
Presently, Kotak Group is the anchor investor in ACE Commodity Exchange with a 51 per cent stake, while Haryana's Hafed has a 15 per cent interest and banks like Bank of Baroda, Union Bank and Corporation Bank have an over 14 per cent stake.
The remaining equity is held by Ahmedabad Commodity Exchange members.
The other four national commodity exchanges are NMCE, MCX, NCDEX and ICEX.