Commodity exchanges turnover fell by 39% and stood at Rs 92.05 lakh crore till February 15 of the current fiscal due to poor volumes, according to the data compiled by the Forward Markets Commission (FMC). Their business stood at Rs 151 lakh crore in the same period of the last financial year. There are currently 17 commodity exchanges in the country including MCX, NCDEX and NMCE offering futures trading. A drop in turnover of all major commodities from bullion to agriculture was experienced across the exchanges.
The turnover from bullion fell by over 43% to Rs 39.72 lakh crore during April-February 15th of the current fiscal, from Rs 70 lakh crore in the year-ago. Similarly, business from metals like copper declined by 43% to Rs 16 lakh crore from Rs 28.44 lakh crore, while the turnover from energy commodities fell by 32% to Rs 22.45 lakh crore from Rs 33 lakh crore in the review.
The market regulator FMC has given freedom to national level bourses to charge different transaction fee in order to boost trading volumes. It has also allowed them to levy different transaction fee based on delivery and non-delivery based contracts.
After the imposition of commodity transaction tax the trading volumes on bourses have been hit. Besides, investors are trading cautiously after the Rs 5,500 crore payment crisis came to light at the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) few months ago.