Commexes turnover drops 55 pc in January

The combined turnover of commodity exchanges fell by 55 per cent to Rs 6.56 lakh crore in January due to sharp fall in trading volumes in bullion and metals, according to regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC).
These exchanges had clocked a business of Rs 14.55 lakh crore in the same month last year, latest data showed.
According to the FMC, maximum business of Rs 5.18 lakh crore was generated by MCX, followed by NCDEX at Rs 98,881 crore, NMCE at Rs 18,294 crore, UCX at 6,318 crore, ICEX at Rs 5,878 crore and ACE at Rs 3,676 crore during last month.

Experts said that turnover slipped after imposition of commodity transaction tax since July last year and also due to low investor confidence in the market following the Rs 5,600 crore payment crisis at NSEL, a sister concern of the MCX.
As per the latest data, the turnover from gold and silver fell by 65 per cent to Rs 2.38 lakh crore in January this year, from Rs 6.83 lakh crore in the year-ago period.
The business from metals too dropped by 68 per cent to Rs 98,080 crore from Rs 3,08,910 crore, while the turnover from energy items like crude oil declined by 44 per cent to Rs 1.67 lakh crore from Rs 2.99 lakh crore in the period under review.

The turnover from farm items like guar and chana fell by seven per cent to Rs 1.51 lakh crore in January this year from Rs 1.63 lakh crore in the year-ago period.
There are six national and 11 regional level commodity exchanges in the country.