Pepper Future Witnesses Down Trend

Kochi: The pepper futures market continued its falling trend on May 23, mainly considered as fallout of the restrictions introduced by the Exchanges. Indian exporters who were catching up with the international market have been put into difficulty now. The market sees high volatility in the trade because of the increased intra-day trade, which in fact has made the trade an online gambling. Add to this the non-availability of space in the warehouses as they become fully occupied when the contract nears maturity. Spot availability is limited while the nearest month is available cheap and the exporters are buying it to cover. Indian parity is at $3,800-$3,850 a tonne (c&f) as against Indonesia's Lasta at $3,850 a tonne (fob) and Brazil's B Asta at $3,800 (fob).
May contract on NCDEX fell by Rs 80 a quintal on May 23, to close at Rs 13,754 from Rs 13,834 on May 22. The drop in other contracts was from Rs 43 to Rs 111 a quintal. On NMCE, May contract declined by Rs 117 a quintal to close at Rs 13,539 from Rs 13,656. The decline in other contracts was from Rs 86 to Rs 391 a quintal. The total turnover on NCDEX was up by 3,424 tonnes to 48,926 tonnes while on NMCE it declined by 50 tonnes to 4,308 tonnes. The total open interest on NCDEX dropped by 698 tonnes to 24,467 tonnes while June position declined by 1,111 tonnes to 13,493 tonnes. Spot prices ruled firm at previous levels of Rs 13,700 (un-garbled) and Rs 14,300 (MG 1) on May 23.