Sugar futures resumes on positive note on comexes

MUMBAI: Futures trading in sugar resumed on Monday on a positive note after a gap of 19 months as the country's top two national exchanges MCX and NCDEX launched new contracts.

The January contract on MCX opened at Rs 3,068 per tonne and closed at Rs 3,214, while on the Ncdex it opened at Rs 3,049 per tonne and closed at Rs 3,044. The total value traded on MCX stood at Rs 29.89 crore, while on Ncdex it was worth Rs 84.10 crore.

According to Ncdex, the exchange was doing a daily turnover of Rs 100-300 crore on sugar contracts before it was banned by the government.

The government had banned sugar trading in the futures market in May 2009 for six months to curb the spiralling sugar prices. Later, the ban was extended till September, 2010.

However, despite the ban, sugar prices in the domestic market continued to hold firm and touched a high of Rs 4,065 per quintal in January 2010, as the production in 2009-10 was estimated at 18.8 million tonnes, much below the consumption level of around 23 million tonnes.

According to analysts, rise in exports due to global shortfall will keep the sugar prices firm.