| K. Venkiteswaran
Rubber futures set global benchmark
· Growers have benefited in terms of price and quality
· India accounts for 15 per cent of world's rubber production
KOCHI: The National Mutli-Commodity Exchange (NMCE) recorded 1,063 MT of physical delivery of rubber in the February series that expired in the weekend, taking the total physical delivery of the commodity since the beginning of futures trading at the exchange to 30,612 MT.
However, the total volume of the commodity traded in the February series alone stood at 98,676 MT. The ratio of physical delivery to total volume traded was 1.08 per cent, indicating the depth and liquidity of futures trading at NMCE, a press release said here on Monday.
Rubber is harvested between September and December. The country produces 7,50,000 MT of rubber annually, accounting for 15 per cent of the world's production. According to Kailash Gupta, managing director of NMCE, Indian rubber futures has proved to be the international benchmark as rubber price setter for the first time this year. He said futures trading with transparent and robust final settlement system greatly helped true price discovery. The NMCE prices discovered the February series prices in January, much before Tokyo, Singapore and Thailand exchanges, he said.
During the year 2000 to 2002, the Rubber Board carried out a detailed study regarding rubber futures in international markets, as the Indian rubber prices were adversely impacted to the disadvantage of rubber growers here. Hence, the Board had approached the Forward Markets Commission for permitting futures trading in rubber."
Since the NMCE introduced rubber futures in 2003, the growers have been benefited in terms of price, standardisation of quality of rubber and stability in prices, which is being appreciated by all stakeholders, claimed the release. However there is a group of vested interests that is against futures trading from the very beginning and is trying to create confusion and sensation out of the current rubber prices based on actual demand and supply , the release alleged.
A large number of plantation and spice growers, investors and other players in Kerala trade on the NMCE's electronic platform, as it is backed by robust and reliable delivery settlement system of the Central Warehousing Corporation and finances from the Punjab National Bank. Similarly, the physical delivery of pepper, another highly traded commodity at NMCE, in February series stood at 52 MT, against 3,508 MT of total volume traded, the ratio of delivery to volume being 1.48 per cent.
In the case of cardamom, it was 39 quintals of physical delivery, accounting for 0.56 per cent of 6,912 quintals of total volume of the commodity traded at the NMCE. |