Turnover of the commodity exchanges fell by 60 percent to Rs 2.77 lakh crore in the first fortnight of December due to sharp drop in trading volumes in most commodities.
The business at the bourses stood at Rs 6.88 lakh crore in the same period last year, the commodity markets regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) said in its latest report.
Analysts are of the view that investors are reluctant to invest in commodity futures trading platform mainly due to payment crisis at National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), promoted by Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL).
According to FMC data, trading in metals other than bullion during the first fortnight of December went down by 70 percent to Rs 37,207 crore from Rs 1.23 lakh crore in the same period last year.
Similarly, the turnover in bullion (gold, silver) fell by 66 percent to Rs 1.07 lakh crore from Rs 3.22 lakh crore.
Turnover in the energy segment dropped by 57 percent to Rs 65,215 crore from Rs 1.50 lakh crore in the review period.
Also, the turnover from agri commodities fell by over 27 percent to Rs 66,966 crore in the first fortnight of this month from Rs 92,060 crore in the year-ago period.
MCX, NCDEX, NMCE, ACE, ICEX and UCX are the six national commodity bourses operating in the country. There are 11 exchanges that offer futures trading in commodities at regional level.
PTI