1,440 diamond buyers take delivery on ICEX

27 carats of polished stones worth Rs 83 lakh change hands as exchange completes first-ever diamond futures contracts settlement

Indian Commodity Exhange (ICEX), the world's first diamond derivatives exchange, successfully completed its first-ever diamond futures contracts settlement on November 3, with participation from 1,440 retailers who took delivery of 27 carats of polished diamond worth Rs 83 lakh. At present, around 40 carats of diamonds are lying in the exchange vaults.

ICEX had commenced operations on August 28 this year with the launch of three-monthly diamond futures contracts, with expiry on November 2017, December 2017 and January 2018.

"During the expiry, we have seen a complete convergence of spot and futures price -- one of the important features of the derivatives market. All open-interest positions towards contract expiry resulted in delivery. More than 1,400 clients participated in the delivery process, indicating a wider participation," said Sanjit Prasad, MD & CEO, ICEX.

The total traded quantity in the November contract stood at 5,382.08 carats, valued at Rs 173.32 crore. Percentage of delivery against the total traded quantity was 0.53 per cent.