MCX discontinues 3 sugar futures contracts on poor response

Leading commodity bourse Multi Commodity Exchange has discontinued futures trading in sugar (medium grade) contracts for April, May and June, 2011, due to the tepid response from traders and lack of adequate stocks.

"The exchange has discontinued the April, May and June, 2011, contracts of 'SUGAR-M-DEL'," the exchange circular said.

These three medium-grade sugar contracts have been discontinued with effect from December 29 due to low business volumes and lack of trading interest, it said.

The government had banned sugar futures in May, 2009, as part of measure to control prices of the sweetener.

The ban was valid till September 31, 2010. After the lapse of the ban, the regulator FMC did not permit immediate relaunch of the sugar futures, as it was waiting for realistic estimates of production during the 2010-11 sugar year, ending September.

Subsequently, the government had allowed the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and National Commodity Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) to relaunch sugar futures contracts on December 27.

From Day One of its relaunch, MCX began offering a total of six sugar contracts for futures trade, while NCDEX kicked off sugar futures trading under three contracts.

MCX said it has also modified the contract specification for 'sugar medium grade' by adding more delivery centres and has made changes in the discount parameters applicable for the existing January, February and March, 2011, contracts.

The exchange has set up four additional centres at Belguam (Karnataka), Solapur, Pune and Kohlapur (Maharashtra), besides the seven existing centres in Delhi.

Sugar would be delivered at new centres at the discount of Rs 150 per quintal, it said.

At 1500 hours, the three sugar contracts for January, February and March, 2011, delivery were trading down at the MCX platform at Rs 3,146/quintal, Rs 3,211/quintal and Rs 3,244/ quintal, respectively.