Combined turnover of commodity exchanges fell by 25 per cent to Rs 65.68 lakh crore in the first six months of 2013-14 due to a sharp decline in trading volumes in most commodities.
There are 21 commodity exchanges in the country, of which six operate at the national level. These are MCX, NCDEX, NMCE, UCEX, ACE and ICEX.
According to the Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the exchanges had done business of Rs 87.62 lakh crore in the April-September period of the 2012-13.
The commodity markets regulator noted that maximum fall in business was seen in agricultural items, followed by bullion, metals and energy commodities.
Turnover from futures trading in agricultural items fell by 37.16 per cent to Rs 7,47,102 crore in the April-September period of this financial year, from Rs 11,88,870 crore in the same period last year.
Similarly, the business from bullion dropped by 27 per cent to Rs 29.62 lakh crore from Rs 40.61 lakh crore, while the turnover from metals declined by 24 per cent to Rs 12.20 lakh crore from Rs 16.09 lakh crore in the review period.
The turnover from energy commodities like crude oil too fell by little over 14 per cent to Rs 16.27 lakh crore in the first six months of this fiscal, compared to Rs 19.02 lakh crore in the year-ago period.
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