India National Spot Exchange to trade four new commodities

 

 

India's National Spot Exchange Ltd will likely launch trade in rapeseed, soy, cumin seeds and chick peas in February.

 

"We are likely to receive approval from the states of Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh next month and we will start trade in these commodities once the approval is in place," Anjani Sinha, managing director and chief executive of the exchange said in a conference held over the weekend.

 

The exchange currently serves as a platform for spot trading of castor seeds, guar seeds, cotton, areca nuts, lentils, gold and silver.

 

Late last month, the spot exchange began procuring cotton in Andhra Pradesh state on behalf of the state-run National Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Federation.

 

"We had started procurement operations from the beginning of January and have so far procured around INR300 billion worth of raw cotton from farmers," Sinha said.

 

After ginning and pressing, the cotton will be traded at the exchange, Sinha said.

 

National Spot Exchange is owned by the Financial Technologies Group, which also owns the country's top commodity futures exchange, the Multi Commodity Exchange.

 

Another spot exchange, the NCDEX Spot Exchange Ltd., is planning to launch trade in pepper, mentha oil, oilseeds, pulses, cotton, rice and wheat after getting approvals from state governments.

 

NCDEX Spot, a unit of the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange, launched a sugar contract in December 2007 and a steel contract in July 2008.