April 2, 2009

India's National Spot Exchange Ltd. is planning to start wheat contracts trading next week, a top exchange official said Wednesday (April 1).

"We are going to launch two wheat contracts next week for delivery in Gujarat (state). We have already taken the warehouses for storage," Anjani Sinha, managing director and chief executive of the exchange, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Sinha said the lot size can be in multiples of one bag of 100 kilograms each so that even marginal farmers can sell.

The exchange is also planning to launch the wheat contract for delivery in the western state of Maharashtra by the end of April, Sinha said.

The exchange, which is jointly promoted by Financial Technologies India Ltd. and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd., currently trades in cotton, cluster bean seeds, castor seeds and pulses.