The National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE) was confident of doubling its daily turnover in the next six months, Anil Mishra, chief executive officer of the bourse, said.
“Currently, the daily turnover of the exchange is more than Rs 1,600 crore both sides, up 566.66 per cent from around Rs 240 crore last year during the same period. We are confident that our daily turnover will almost double by the end of the current financial year (April-March),” Mishra said.
Mishra said the bourse’s daily turnover had risen sharply due to introduction of a trading session in the evening in September last year.
“The evening session has improved our bullion and metals trade, which were negligible earlier. We have started focusing on various stakeholders in these sectors. The results of our past efforts will further reflect in our turnover figures,” he said.
Mishra said the bourse’s turnover had already surpassed the previous year’s total of Rs 1.23 lakh crore by over 24 per cent in the April-August period.
Similarly, NMCE’s total volume in the April-August period stood at over 80.15 trillion lots, up 9 per cent from the previous year’s total turnover of 73.50 trillion lots, Mishra said.
“The bourse’s membership has increased due to the evening session. Currently, we have 350 members as against 200 last year. We are aiming to further add 150 members by the end of this financial year,” said the CEO of the city-based exchange.
Focused commodities
Mishra said though the bourse was seeing a good improvement in other commodities, its prime focus would remain rubber, coffee and sacking futures.
“We have the highest penetration in rubber, coffee, and sacking futures in India, and we are number one in these commodities. Our strategy will be strengthening our performance in other commodities and maintaining the growth in these three futures,” he said.
NMCE’s rubber futures volume in the April-August period stood at over 3.77 trillion lots, up 70.58 per cent from the total volume of 2.21 trillion lots in 2008-09, data provided by the exchange showed.
The exchange’s coffee volumes during April-August stood at 2.84 trillion lots as against the total turnover of 4.38 trillion lots in 2008-09.
NMCE’s sacking futures volume in the period under review stood at 5.41 trillion lots, as against the total volume of 7.99 trillion lots in the previous year.
Disaster recovery
The official said the bourse was planning to set up another server to replicate the exchange’s data to ensure smooth trade.
“The next step after bringing the ODIN technology is setting up another server for disaster recovery. The new server will have all the data that our main server has. In case the main server stops working due to some disaster, we will be able to just switch to the replica server and trade will not be disrupted even for a second,” Mishra said.
On July 15, NMCE signed a pact with Financial Technologies to bring ODIN platform. Mishra said the bourse was in talks with some technology providers within and outside the country. However, he refused to divulge any names at this stage.
He said the exchange would require around Rs 40 crore to upgrade its technology infrastructure.
More branches
Mishra said NMCE was also planning to open more branches within the next two-three years.
“We are planning to open two more branch offices, one each in Jaipur and Indore, which will increase our performance in mustard, guar, and soyoil futures,” he said.
Mishra also said NMCE was planning to hire experts for marketing the exchange into the interior parts of the country.
He said with other programmes such as branding, and training, the cost of these efforts will come to around Rs 40 crore.
Fund raising
Mishra said the exchange required about Rs 80 crore to fund expansion and the management planned to raise these funds by diluting 20 per cent stake through fresh equity.
“Many investors have shown interest. The exchange is evaluating. We are looking at the valuation depending on their role in the exchange. If they are pure investors, the valuation will be higher, but if they bring strategic value to the exchange, (a) little discount will be considered,” he said.
He added the exchange was in talks with some financial institutions within and outside the country and stakes would be sold according to the guidelines of the Forward Market Commission.
