Futures and Commodity Market News

Sat May 17, 2008

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Mumbai, May 08, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- Country's leading agri commodity bourse the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) may witness a 20 per cent decline in volume due to the ban imposed on chana, rubber, potato and soyoil, a top exchange official said.

"The ban on four commodities announced by the government is a big setback for us. It is a cause of concern as chana and soyoil contributes 20 per cent of our turnover. The volume of futures trading in rubber and potato is not very significant," NCDEX's Managing Director and CEO R Ramaseshan said in his first interaction with the media here.

The government, yesterday suspended futures trading in channa (gram) refined soyoil, potato and rubber for four months. It had banned futures trading in wheat, rice, urad and tur last year. The ban was imposed in in the view of high food prices.

The exchange daily volume is estimated at Rs 2,000 crore and chana and soyoil contributes around Rs 400-500 crore worth turnover.

"We hope that the ban does not last beyond four months. We will back in business as the market requires these instruments," Ramaseshan said, adding that "we have put in a lot of effort and energy in setting up infrastructure".

Asked about the impact of the ban, Ramaseshan said, it was too early to comment.

On NCDEX's future strategy he said: "Our focus will continue to be on agri commodities as well as non-agri commodities. Agri still has a lot of potential." The exchange has started discussions of options on how to improve its business and launch new products, he said.

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