Commexes' turnover dips 70%

Turnover of commodity exchanges plummeted 70% at Rs 2.36 lakh crore in the first fortnight of April as volumes in most commodities dipped sharply, according to regulator FMC.

The business at 17 commodity exchanges stood at Rs 7.87 lakh crore in the year-ago period. MCX, NCDEX, NMCE, ICEX, ACE and UCX are national level commodity bourses, while the rest 11 are regional exchanges.

According to the Forward Markets Commission's data, the maximum fall in business was seen in the futures trading of bullion items followed by energy, metals and agriculture commodities.

Turnover from bullion declined by 77% to Rs 87,997 crore during the April 1-15 period, from Rs 3.84 lakh crore in the same fortnight a year ago.

Similarly, business from energy commodities such as crude oil fell by 71% to Rs 54,647 crore, from Rs 1.85 lakh crore. The turnover from metals like copper dropped by 64% to Rs 47,234 crore from Rs 1.31 lakh crore.

The turnover from agricultural commodities also declined by 46% to Rs 46,760 crore in the first fortnight of this month, from Rs 85,853 crore in the same period last year.

The country's leading commodity bourse MCX did business worth Rs 1.94 lakh crore in the first 15 days of April, while NCDEX turnover was Rs 38,218 crore, ACE - Rs 2,291 crore, UCX - Rs 915 crore, NMCE - Rs 571 crore and ICEX - Rs 0.29 crore in the same period, FMC data said.

The volume of turnover on the commodity exchanges has taken a beating due to imposition of commodity transaction tax since July 2013. Besides, the Rs 5,600 crore payment crisis at spot exchange NSEL dented the investor confidence, market experts said.

In the 2013-14 fiscal, the overall turnover of commodity bourses declined by 41% to Rs 101.44 lakh crore as compared to Rs 170.46 lakh crore in the year-ago.