Pepper Witnesses Upward Trend

Kochi: Pepper futures market continued its upward swing from last Oct 5 and the prices, in that sequence, shot up on Oct 8, on good domestic demand coupled with bullish activities. Because of the festival season and the winter in North India, domestic buying activity was witnessed and large quantity of black pepper moved out from the primary markets in northern Kerala to other States at terminal market prices. As a result, spot prices also increased by Rs 300 a quintal. Vietnam was reportedly slightly better at the weekend and Indonesia was also hoped to increase under the influence of the futures market trend here apart from the prevailing tight supply position. October contract on NCDEX increased by Rs 249 a quintal on Oct 8, to Rs 13,020. The increase in other contracts was from Rs 303 to Rs 490 a quintal.

Total turnover on NCDEX increased by 832 tonnes to 22,774 tonnes while that for October fell by 11 per cent and November increased by 72 per cent.On NMCE, total turnover went up by 947 tonnes to 3,114 tonnes. Total open interest on NCDEX increased by 301 tonnes to 20,453 tonnes. October position dropped by 25 per cent. On NMCE, total open interest moved up by 30 tonnes to 2,209 tonnes. Spot prices on good domestic demand shot up by Rs 300 a quintal on Oct 8, to close at Rs 12,400 (un-garbled) and Rs 13,000 (MG 1).