Commexes Apr-Jan turnover continues to lag behind

The turnover of commodity bourses continued to be sluggish, declining to Rs 136.51 lakh crore till January 15 of the current fiscal due to sluggish volumes in bullion, according to the Forward Markets Commission (FMC).

There are 21 commodity bourses in the country. The cumulative turnover of these exchanges stood at Rs 144.31 lakh crore in the same period last year, the regulator FMC said in the report.

Bullion trade on the exchange platforms has come under pressure due to price volatility and recent hike in import duty to 6% to bring down high current account deficit.

The trading sentiments were affected on reports of imposition of transaction tax on bullion trade, experts said.

According to the FMC data, the turnover from bullion fell by 24.56% to Rs 63.21 lakh crore during April-January 15 period of the current fiscal from Rs 83.78 lakh crore in the same period last year.

Barring gold and silver, performance of other commodities like agricultural items, energy and metal showed a marked improvement from the year-ago period.

While the turnover from energy items increased by 30% to Rs 29.86 lakh crore till January 15 of this fiscal from Rs 22.97 lakh crore in the year-ago period, the business from metals jumps by 18% to Rs 25.49 lakh crore from Rs 21.62 lakh crore in the review period.

Similarly, the turnover from agricultural items increased by 13% to Rs 17.95 lakh crore during April-January,15 of 2012-13 financial year from Rs 15.91 lakh crore in the same period last year.

Out of total 21 commodity bourses, MCX, NCDEX, NMCE, ICEX and ACE are national level exchanges, while the rest operate at regional level.