NCDEX trades hit new record

The Mumbai-based National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) reported record turnover of Rs 2842 crore (single-sided) on March 2, 2005, making it the highest grossing commodity futures exchange in the country.

The previous record was set on December 8, 2004, when trade worth Rs 2612 crore was transacted.

Narendra Gupta, chief business officer of NCDEX, said average daily turnover was expected to stabilise at over Rs 2000 crore per day by the end of this fiscal.

"We see over a 100 per cent growth in the next two years, and should touch Rs 4000 crore per day by then," he said.

Market sources said commodity futures trading has been witnessing triple-digit growth since commencement of operations.

There is healthy investor interest and demand for new contracts in a wide variety of commodities. NCDEX is planning to launch futures trading in steel contracts on March 11 in Delhi.

The trade on March 2 was spread across all the commodities with 24.8 per cent of trades being done in guarseed futures, worth Rs 704 crore.

Soya oil came second with 22.6 per cent market share worth Rs 561 crore. Urad accounted for 15 per cent of trades with turnover of Rs 426 crore.

Silver trades stood at 9.8 per cent worth Rs 279 crore.

Jeera and 'chana' accounted for 5.9 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively.

Soyabean, sugar and mustard too clocked 3.7 per cent , 3.3 per cent and 2.7 per cent of the trade respectively.

Gold trades totalled Rs 31 crore or 1.1 per cent. The exchange offers futures contracts in 33 commodities.

In all, there are 25 recognised futures exchanges in the country, of which three are national level multi-commodity exchanges.

The overall turnover of commodity futures trading is expected to touch Rs 500,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal.