Commexes' turnover dips 51% in first fortnight of March

Turnover of commodity exchanges fell by 51% to Rs 3.43 lakh crore in the first fortnight of March due to decline in volumes across the board except farm products.

The business of all the 17 commodity exchanges offering futures trading in the country, including MCX, NCDEX and NMCE, was Rs 6.96 lakh crore in the same period last year, according to the data of Forward Markets Commission.

Trading volumes on the bourses have been hit after the imposition of the commodity transaction tax.

Besides, investors are also trading cautiously after the Rs 5,500 crore payment crisis came to light at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) few months ago.

Turnover of the commexes from April 1 to March 15 in the financial year 2013-14 has fallen 40% to Rs 98.57 lakh crore, as against Rs 164.79 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

There was a drop in turnover of all the major commodities except agriculture, according to FMC data.

Turnover from bullion witnessed maximum fall of over 62% to Rs 1.16 lakh crore during March 1-15, from Rs 3.07 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

Similarly, business from metals like copper declined by 60% to Rs 59,345 crore, from Rs 1.48 lakh crore. Turnover from energy commodities fell by 54% to Rs 73,715 crore, from Rs 1.60 lakh crore.

However, there was an increase in the turnover of farm items by over 17% to Rs 94,680 crore during March 1-15, from Rs 80,913 crore in the year-ago period.

To boost trading volumes, FMC has given freedom to national level bourses to charge different transaction fee. It has also allowed them to levy different transaction fee based on delivery and non-delivery based contracts.