Coriander futures tumble 15% as SEBI seeks price data

MUMBAI: Amid soaring prices of onions and pulses, coriander - a widelyused spice -has fallen in the past four days, offering some respite to the common man.

The spot price of coriander, polled by the country's largest farm futures bourse NCDEX, has fallen 7% in four days through Monday morning. The fall is being attributed by commodity market brokers to the larger 15% decline over the same period in coriander futures on fears of possible Sebi action to curb speculation in the counter.

While the wholesale spot price dropped to Rs 11,241 per quintal (100 kilos) in four days through Monday morning, coriander futures slumped 15% over the same period to Rs 10,250 per quintal, with traders being unable to exit in the near absence of buyers on the futures market. Such has been the panic that coriander futures have erased all the gains made in 41 trading sessions through October 12 in just four days.

On the first day", the futures contract was locked at the 4% lower circuit, on the second, it hit the 6% lower circuit.And on Monday, too, it was locked down at 6%. Trading did not happen as not many traders were willing to buy at lower levels over fears of possible Sebi action, said a South-based broker.



Coriander futures took 41 days to rally 15% from Rs 10,669 on August 12 to Rs 12,297 on October 12 on expectations that poor monsoon this year would af fect the soil moisture quality for the ra bi crop and result in lower output.

While NCDEX confirmed market ru mours of Sebi having asked for histori cal price data and trading patterns in coriander futures, it sought to allay the panic. To better understand agricultu ral futures trading, Sebi has been seek ing historical data and its analysis from the exchange. The exchange has been submitting various analytical reports on underlying fundamentals, price movements and trading on the Ex change platform, an NCDEX officia told ET. Sebi took charge of the com modity futures market after the gov ernment merged its erstwhile regula tor FMC with it effective September 28.