Pepper rises 4%, mentha dips 10%

MARKET ROUND-UP

Over the last week, pepper and mentha futures have shown almost a change of 10 per cent. The only difference is that the movements have been in the diametrically opposite direction "� pepper jumped, whereas Mentha dipped.

Pepper struck a turnover of Rs 560 crore on the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (Ncdex) on Tuesday.

According to market reports, there has been some export enquiries from domestic as well as export markets. The last week has seen pepper futures rising by more than 4 per cent.

Last week, the near-month pepper contract closed at Rs 10,725 a quintal. This rose to Rs 11,110 on Tuesday, up 4 per cent. However, compared to the last day's close, it fell by around Rs 32, managing to remain above the 11,000 mark.

Meanwhile, there seems to be no stopping on the free fall of mentha oil futures. The decline, which began last month and came down below Rs 600 a kg, closed at Rs 559 a kg on Tuesday. This is a fall of over 10 per cent from the support level of Rs 625 a kg. The turnover recorded for mentha oil was Rs 40 crore.

A responsible factor for the mentha price decline is believed to be the report of a 25 per cent higher than the normal production. There is no demand for mentha oil in the domestic as well as the export market.

Interestingly, a few months ago, mentha was touching Rs 700 a kg mark on the back of anticipation that exports will put pressure on the supply.

Meanwhile, maize futures are also in the red. In the midst of a hue and cry over a ban on export of maize, the near-month futures on the exchange closed at Rs 733, down by Rs 12 a quintal. Compared to last Tuesday, the futures prices fell by over 5 per cent this week.