Commexes turnover slides 69 pc in April to Rs 4.64 lakh crore

Turnover of the commodity exchanges fell by 69 per cent to Rs 4.64 lakh crore in April this year on sluggish trading volumes in most commodities, Forward Markets Commission (FMC) said today.
Their business stood at Rs 14.77 lakh crore in the same month in the corresponding year.
Maximum fall was seen in bullion, followed by energy items, base metals and agri-commodities, commodity markets regulator FMC said releasing its latest data.
Turnover from bullion fell over 76 per cent to Rs 1.68 lakh crore in April this year, as against Rs 7.15 lakh crore in the year-ago, the FMC data showed.

The business from energy items like crude oil declined by over 70 per cent to Rs 1.04 lakh crore from Rs 3.5 lakh crore, while the turnover from metals dropped by 64 per cent to Rs 95,195 crore from Rs 2.63 lakh crore in the review period.
Similarly, the turnover from agricultural commodities fell by 35 per cent to Rs 96,167 crore in April this year, from Rs 1.48 lakh crore in the same month last year.

Experts said that participation in the commodity futures markets has taken a beating due to higher transaction cost and sluggish investor confidence after the Rs 5,600 crore payment default at spot exchange NSEL.

FMC also mentioned that it has directed all national level bourses not to charge any fee to conduct audit of their members and that they should develop in-house capacity for this purpose.
There are five national bourses -- MCX, NCDEX, NMCE, ACE and ICEX, and 11 regional level commodity exchanges operating in the country.