Turnover of the commodity exchanges dropped 58.37 per cent to Rs 22.4 lakh crore till August 15 of this fiscal due to continuous fall in trading volumes in most of the commodities, according to the Forward Markets Commission (FMC).
Turnover at these exchanges stood at Rs 53.82 lakh crore in the same period of 2013-14 fiscal.
According to data released by the commodity markets regulator FMC, maximum trading volumes have fallen in bullion, followed by energy items, industry metals and agricultural commodities.
Turnover from bullion fell 67.4 per cent to Rs 7.96 lakh crore during April-August 15 of the current fiscal from Rs 24.43 lakh crore in the year-ago period.
Similarly, the turnover from energy items has dropped 65 per cent to Rs 4.87 lakh crore from Rs 13.82 lakh crore, while the business from metals fell 51 per cent to Rs 5.01 lakh crore from Rs 10.16 lakh crore in the review period.
Turnover from farm items declined 15.52 per cent to Rs 4.55 lakh crore during April-August 15 of this fiscal against Rs 5.38 lakh crore in the same period last year.
Experts said trading volumes have been falling owing to imposition of commodities transaction cost and dent in investors’ sentiment after the Rs 5,600-crore payment scam surfaced at National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).
Currently, there are ten commodity bourses in the country, of which five operate at national level.