E-series investors redeem 85.5kg gold, Rs 140cr cash from NSEL

Commodity markets regulator FMC today said some of the e-series gold investors at crisis-hit spot exchange NSEL have recovered 85.5 kg of physical gold and about Rs 140 crore in cash from the troubled bourse.

National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), a subsidiary of Jignesh Shah-led Financial Technologies India Ltd, is grappling with a payment crisis for settling dues worth Rs 5,500-crore after it suspended trading activities in July last year following a government directive.

To help 33,000 investors redeem metals worth Rs 525 crore stuck in e-series contracts, FMC had asked NSEL to begin rematerialisation of its e-series gold contracts from April 12 and financial close out of these contracts from May 6.

In a statement, Forward Markets Commission (FMC) said: "As a part of the re-materialization/financial closure of e-series contracts at NSEL, 85.5 kg of gold has been released on rematerisalisation to about 500 investors of E-Gold and approximately Rs 140 crore have been distributed in financial closure to over 23000 investors of E-Gold at NSEL."

Rematerialisation is the process by which a client can get his electronic holdings converted into physical form.

On performance of the overall commodity futures market during April-May of this fiscal, FMC said that the turnover at 15 commodity bourses fell by over 66% to Rs 9.52 lakh crore from Rs 28.16 lakh crore in the year-ago.

The turnover fell across all commodities from agriculture, bullion, metals to energy items, it added.