NMCE relaunches mustard seed futures

National Multi-Commodity Exchange has relaunched its mustard seed futures with changes in contract specifications as per industry demands, said Kailash Gupta, managing director on Saturday.

"A re-launch of the mustard contract was necessary as the earlier specifications were found wanting by the industry. The old basis centres and trading units have been done away with and replaced with those more in sync with industry requirements," told Gupta NewsWire18.

The earlier mustard contracts were found unsuitable by industry players, as they had multiple basis delivery centres and small trading units, he said.

"Having three basis delivery centres in Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Delhi led to a lot of ambiguity earlier as traders in one part of the country were getting delivery in another even though some other centre was closer to them," said Gupta.

It also made it difficult to calculate settlement rates accurately for the industry as they did not know where they would get delivery, he said.

"So all three centres have been done away with and Patan in Gujarat has become the new basis centre," said Gupta.

The additional delivery centres are Palanpur, Disa,Dhanera, Sidhpur, Unjha, Mehasana, Kadi, Bhabhar, Hariz, Talod, Himatnagar, Bhuj, Rajkot, Halwad, Jamanagar and Dhoraji.

The exchange launched the contract with expiry on the 15th of March, April, and May, and 14th of June.

The trading and delivery unit have also been raised to 10 tonnes from 1 tonnes earlier.

"Originally, we had set the unit at 1 tonnes to boost retail participation but as time progressed these retail players have also been taking bigger positions, so this change was effected," said Gupta.