Pepper Futures Regained

Kochi: Pepper futures, which declined on speculation that the Centre was cutting Customs duty, bounced back strongly on March 30. International market continued to remain firm with not much let up. Prices of all the origins except India continued to rule steady at previous levels. Strong rupee against dollar has also contributed to this phenomenon. Investors were selling futures and purchasing exchange delivered material. On the other hand, the processors were buying farm grade pepper. As the materials are not moving out the stock is being piled up, they pointed out. April contract on NCDEX shot up by Rs 427 a quintal on Friday to Rs 13,838. April contract on NMCE went up by Rs 347 a quintal to Rs13,400. The increase in other contracts was from Rs 382 to Rs 554 a quintal. The total open interest on NCDEX dropped by 775 tonnes to 28,103 tonnes. May declined by 199 tonnes to 13,703 tonnes while June moved up by 624 tonnes to 5,426 tonnes. On NMCE total open interest went up by 22 tonnes to 4,507 tonnes.