New Delhi:Turnover of commodity exchanges plummeted 70 per cent to Rs 2.36 lakh crore in the first fortnight of April as the volumes in most commodities dipped sharply.
The turnover at 17 commodity exchanges stood at Rs 7.87 lakh crore in the year-ago period. MCX, NCDEX, NMCE, ICEX, ACE and UCX are national-level commodity bourses, while the rest 11 are regional exchanges.
According to the Forward Markets Commission's data, the maximum fall in business was seen in the futures trading of bullion followed by energy, metals and agriculture commodities.
Turnover from bullion declined 77 per cent to Rs 87,997 crore during April 1-15 from Rs 3.84 lakh crore in the same fortnight a year ago.
Similarly, business from energy commodities such as crude oil fell 71 per cent to Rs 54,647 crore from Rs 1.85 lakh crore. Turnover from metals like copper dropped 64 per cent to Rs 47,234 crore from Rs 1.31 lakh crore.
Turnover from agricultural commodities also declined 46 per cent to Rs 46,760 crore in the first fortnight of this month from Rs 85,853 crore in the same period last year.
The country's leading commodity bourse MCX did business worth Rs 1.94 lakh crore in the first 15 days of April, while NCDEX turnover was Rs 38,218 crore, ACE Rs 2,291 crore, UCX Rs 915 crore, NMCE Rs 571 crore and ICEX Rs 0.29 crore, FMC data said.
The volume of turnover on the commodity exchanges has taken a beating due to imposition of commodity transaction tax since July 2013. Besides, the Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis at NSEL, dented the investor confidence, market experts said.
In the 2013-14 fiscal, the overall turnover of commodity bourses declined 41 per cent to Rs 101.44 lakh crore from Rs 170.46 lakh crore in the previous fiscal.
