Turnover of 22 comexes up 42% in April

Spurred by bullion and farm futures, the turnover of 22 commodity exchanges in the country rose by 41.89% to Rs 2,37,503 crore in the first fortnight of the current fiscal, the commodity regulator FMC has said.      

Three national exchanges and 19 regional bourses generated a business of Rs 1,67,391 crore in the corresponding period last year, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) said in a statement.       

Interestingly after a long lull, futures trading in agricultural commodities showed an improvement in the first fortnight of the current fiscal and the turnover rose by 18.40% to Rs 36,400 crore from Rs 30,744 crore last year, it said.      

Similarly bullion futures, the key volume drivers on most bourses, spiked by 30.87% to Rs 1,10,492 crore during the review period, the FMC data showed.      

During April 1-15, the turnover of the leading commodity exchange MCX jumped by 46.46% to Rs 2,00,485 crore during, compared with Rs 1,36,884 crore in a year-ago period.      

Leading agri commodity bourse NCDEX, which was suffering from lower volumes, reported an increase in its turnover by 10.70% at Rs 27,726 crore during the period.      

Trading volumes increased to 10.20 million tonnes at the NCDEX platform during April 1-15, 2009, from 8.9 million tonnes in a year-ago period, it said, adding that chana futures alone attracted volumes to the tune of over 1.5 million.Turnover at NMCE, the third national level exchange, improved to Rs 6,266 crore from Rs 2,151 crore in the last year, it said.      

Whereas at Indore-based regional exchange National Board of Trade, where soya oil is largely traded, business slipped marginally to Rs 2,126 crore during the review period from Rs 2,390 crore in the last year, it added.