Turnover in futures trade in commodities tripling every year

Kochi, Jun 17 (UNI) Re-launching Copra Futures Trade in the First Commodities Exchange of India Ltd (FCEI) here today, Forward Markets Commission Member Kewal Ram said the turnover in futures trade in commodities was tripling every year.

Describing this as a world record, Dr Ram said a large number of foreign delegations, including from the World Bank and countries such as China, were coming here to learn from the Indian experience in futures trade in commodities which was launched in 2003-04.

Attributing this success to the fact that the Forward Markets Commission had left things to the market forces, Dr Ram said the Commission did not try to guide the operations or ''impose artificial knowledge'' on the market.

Stating that the volumes in the commodities trade was close to the securities market, he said uniform regulations for exchanges and products will be developed over a period of time.

Guidelines will also be formulated for local exchanges to become part of the national exchanges. A federation of commodities exchanges in India could also be set up to provide advantage of scale to the local exchanges.

However, the local exchanges should not look for protectionism and should learn to live with market pangs, he added.

Earlier, in his welcome address, FCEI chairman P V Alexander said the exchange was expecting sanction for launching futures trade in rubber.

The FCEI was targeting to increase its annual turnover of Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore by next year, he said.

Also present on the occasion were Justice M Ramachandran of the Kerala high court and Coconut Development Board chairperson Minnie Mathew.

UNI ARC GM PAG1600