Pepper ruled nearly steady on Monday on selling pressure. Consequently, two of the active contracts ended marginally down, while the third contract moved up.

Reports of Sri Lankan offers at competitive rates coupled with rumours of release of some part of the pepper locked up in the warehouses resulted in creating some bearish sentiments in the market today, market sources said.

Added to this, is the sun shine today which the trade believe might help increase the arrivals pushing the prices down.

Sellers were there from plains at Rs 395 a kg while the buyers were at Rs 389-390 a kg. Some seven tonnes of pepper from the plains were traded at the average price of Rs 389 a kg. There was no arrival from the high ranges, they said. However, Karnataka was offering at Rs 395 and at Rs 405 delivered anywhere in the country.

Against this, the landed cost of Sri Lankan pepper 500 GL would come to Rs 350, they said.

August and September contracts on the National Multi Commodity Exchange decreased by Rs 10 and Rs 94, respectively, to the last traded price (LTP) of Rs 41,500, Rs 41,950. October contracts increased by Rs 225 to Rs 42,050. Total turnover moved up by two tonnes to close at 32 tonnes, while the total net open position declined by two tonnes to 81 tonnes.

Spot prices continued to remain unchanged at Rs 38,900 (ungarbled) and Rs 40,900 (garbled) a quintal on limited activities. Indian parity in the international market was up at $7,100 a tonne (c&f) for Europe and $7,350 a tonne (c&f) for the US.

Overseas trend

According to an overseas report today, Sri Lanka started offering fresh black pepper 525 GL at $5,850 (cif), 550 GL at $5,975 and white pepper at $9,830 all (cif) Kochi.

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