Turnover of commodity exchanges fell by 39% to Rs 92.05 lakh crore till February 15 of the current fiscal due to poor volumes, according to the Forward Markets Commission (FMC).
There are 17 commodity exchanges in the country including MCX, NCDEX and NMCE offering futures trading. Their business stood at Rs 151 lakh crore in the same period of the last financial year.
According to FMC's latest data, there was a drop in turnover of all major commodities from bullion to agriculture.
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The turnover from bullion fell by over 43% to Rs 39.72 lakh crore during April-February 15th of the current fiscal, from Rs 70 lakh crore in the year-ago.
Similarly, business from metals like copper declined by 43% to Rs 16 lakh crore from Rs 28.44 lakh crore, while the turnover from energy commodities fell by 32% to Rs 22.45 lakh crore from Rs 33 lakh crore in the review period.
The turnover from farm items too fell by over 29% to Rs 13.79 lakh crore till February 15 of this fiscal, from Rs 19.51 lakh crore in the year-ago.
To boost trading volumes, regulator FMC has given freedom to national level bourses to charge different transaction fee. It has also allowed them to levy different transaction fee based on delivery and non-delivery based contracts.
The trade volumes on bourses have been hit after the imposition of commodity transaction tax.
Besides, investors are trading cautiously after the Rs 5,500 crore payment crisis came to light at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) few months ago.