MCX shines on gold, silver volumes

The Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) clocked a record volume in gold and silver of over Rs 1000 crore (one-sided) on October 12,2004.

This took MCX silver beyond the volume traded on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM), the world's second largest bullion exchange.

As on October 12, 7,487 kilograms of gold worth Rs 467 crore and 571,490 kilograms of silver worth Rs 626 crore was traded on the MCX.

The bullion volume contributed to roughly 96 per cent of the total day's turnover of the exchange, which was at Rs 1136.99 crore.

Joseph Massey, deputy managing director, MCX, said, "Bullion is an evergreen commodity with strong technical parameters, which are known to traders and investors at large. This attribute leads to the fact that the rationale of volatility or fluctuation in the prices are in comprehension of everybody and is not restricted to knowledge of just a few."

Gold has seen a cumulative physical delivery of 249 kg and silver 2190 kg across all settlements completed till October 14. In the last completed settlement, 100 kg of gold was delivered during a delivery span of five days.

On MCX, the 'bid-ask-spread' is Rs 1 and the narrow spread aided liquidity, sais sources. The ratio of trading volume to open interest is also comparable to global exchange standards. The open interest in gold at present was 2200 kg and in silver 1,57,915 kg.