Commexes turnover down 5% till Feb this fiscal

The turnover of commodity exchanges in the country has declined by a little over 5% to Rs 157.82 lakh crore till February of the current fiscal on poor bullion volumes, according to commodity markets regulator FMC.

The business stood at Rs 166.23 lakh crore in the April-February period of 2011-12 fiscal.

Barring bullion, performance of metals, energy and farm commodities on 20 commodity exchanges has been impressive, Forward Markets Commission (FMC) said on its website.

The turnover from bullion has fallen by 23% to Rs 73.26 lakh crore till February of this fiscal from Rs 94.79 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

Whereas the turnover from energy items like crude oil has increased by 31% to Rs 34.41 lakh crore from Rs 26.27 lakh crore, the business from metals like copper has risen by 15% to Rs 29.95 lakh crore in the review period.

Similarly, the turnover from agricultural commodities has increased marginally to Rs 20.20 lakh crore during April- February period of this fiscal, as against Rs 19.09 lakh crore in the same period of previous year.

FMC also said that it has renewed registration of Indore- based regional bourse National Board of Trade for one year till February 2014 for conducting futures trading in soybean seed, refined soy oil and soy meal.

Currently, there are five national and 16 regional level commodity exchanges in the country.