The turnover of 21 commodity exchanges in the country was up 63 per cent at Rs 144.31 lakh crore till January 15 of the current fiscal due to increased trade in gold, silver and some farm items like guarseed, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) has said.
The turnover stood at Rs 88.62 lakh crore in the same period last year.
The maximum trade was seen in gold, silver, guarseed, crude oil, soya oil and chana, the FMC statement said.
According to FMC data, turnover in the bullion segment rose more than two-fold to Rs 83.78 lakh crore during April-January 15 period of the 2011-12 fiscal from Rs 40.27 lakh crore in the corresponding period last year.
In a similar fashion, business from farm items like guarseed increased by 53.37 per cent to Rs 15.91 lakh crore from Rs 10.37 lakh crore.
While the turnover of energy items like crude oil increased by 32.42 per cent to Rs 22.97 lakh crore from Rs 17.35 lakh crore, business from metals like copper rose marginally by 5 per cent to Rs 21.62 lakh crore from Rs 20.61 lakh crore.
During the first fortnight of 2012, the maximum turnover of Rs 5,76,725 crore was posted by the MCX, followed by NCDEX (Rs 98,010 crore), NMCE (Rs 14,144 crore), ICEX (Rs 10,135 crore) and ACE (Rs 7,381 crore).
The FMC further said it has recommended to the Consumer Affairs Ministry, which oversees the functioning of commodity bourses, to renew the recognition of Kochi-based regional bourse, First Commodities Exchange of India, in respect of coconut oil and copra futures contracts for four months till May 2012.
Currently, there are five national and 16 regional commodity exchanges in the country.