Bullion, base metals remain range bound, chana down a tad

MUMBAI: Chana, guarseeds, refined soya oil, soya bean and jeera witnessed active trading on the Ncdex Thursday. The new month chana contract was down almost half a per cent at Rs 2,632 per quintal.

According to Harish Gallipelli of Karvy Comtrade, who is bearish on chana, there could a pullback to 2,650 at which level it could be sold for a target of Rs 2,580—2,550. Chana arrivals are expected in January.

Jeera for January delivery was also down half a per cent at Rs 8,587.6 per 100 kg. According to Geojit Commodities, jeera is in a consolidatory phase with output expected to be down by 20-30% — arrivals are expected next month. At that point, there could be a correction after which it could rise to 9,000 levels, said the brokerage.

The benchmark February contract for guarseeds was down 1.8% at Rs 2,057 per quintal. Says Sandeep Sabharwal of Delhi-based Sohanlal & Co., “Guarseed is not on a bullish spree any longer as most of it is going into stocks as vyaj badla opportunity exists between spot and futures prices. Once investors see the price is not rising, they will simply wash their hands off the commodity.”

Refined soya oil was up nearly a per cent at Rs 465.2 per 10 kg. Wheat near month was down 1.2% at Rs 1,045.8. “Government figures from October 1-December 14 show that area under acreage was up 10.4% at 232.6 lakh/ha over the same period last year,” said Mr Gallipelli. At Ncdex, 588 members (2,864 users) participated in trading up to 5:00 pm and volumes were Rs 2,543 crore (one-way).

The bullion and base metal counters have been sluggish, witnessing rangebound trade on the back of poor liquidity in the market as the holiday season begins. Any movement is expected to be one-sided. Even the quarterly GDP data of US, out at 7 pm IST, which came out below the expectations could not move the dollar.

As a result, gold and silver saw very little change. The yellow metal on the Comex in New York is expected to trade within a range of $616 and $624 per ounce, while silver is expected to trade between $12.32 and $12.70.

In the domestic futures market, in the first session of trading up to 5 pm on MCX, the February gold contract closed at Rs 9,125 per 10 gram, up marginally by Rs 2. Silver for March delivery closed at Rs 19,010 per kg up Rs 35.

Among metals, copper contracts registered a turnover of Rs 566.82 crore with 19,205,000 kg as volumes; while zinc registered a turnover Rs 464.74 crore with 24,310 tonnes as volumes.

February copper closed at Rs 294.70 down Rs 3.15 and zinc for December closed at Rs 190.85 a kg. Crude oil contracts showed a turnover of Rs 213.08 crore with open interest of 749,900 bbl.

MCX recorded a total turnover of Rs 2931.32 crores (single sided) at 5 pm, with the combined bullion contracts accounting for about 25% of the trade at Rs 736.25 crore.