Commexes turnover down 3% till September 15 in FY 2013

NEW DELHI: The turnover of commodity bourses has declined by almost three per cent to Rs 80.30 lakh crore till September 15 of the current fiscal, due to sluggish investor participation in gold and silver futures, according to the commodity markets regulator FMC.

These exchanges had clocked a business turnover of Rs 82.39 lakh crore in the year-ago period, it said.

Except for bullion, there was substantial increase in the turnover of energy, metals and agricultural commodities during the period under the review, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) said.

The business from energy items like crude oil rose by 42 per cent to Rs 17.48 lakh crore during the April-September 15 period of the 2012-13 fiscal, against Rs 12.29 lakh crore in the same period corresponding year.

While the turnover from metals like copper increase by 30 per cent to Rs 14.73 lakh crore from Rs 11.37 lakh crore, the business from farm items rose by 31 per cent to Rs 10.95 lakh crore from Rs 8.33 lakh crore in the period under the review, according to the FMC data.

However, the turnover from bullion fell by 26 per cent to Rs 37.11 lakh crore till September 15 of the current fiscal from Rs 50.38 lakh crore in the year-ago.

On falling business volumes, FMC Chairman Ramesh Abhishek had recently said that the regulator was "more concerned about quality of turnover not on quantity".

He had also said efforts will be made for making volumes more relevant and ensure a balance in speculation and hedging activities.

At present, the country has five national and 16 regional level commodity exchanges in the country. Recently, the FMC gave approval to the Universal Commodity Exchange to operate as a national bourse.