Commodity Online India Ltd, the provider of information, research, futures and spot market trading services in commodities, is set for major expansion extending its reach to various cities across the country through franchisee building, opening new offices as well as through its internet trading platform.

The trading arm of the group company, Celebrus Commodities Ltd, is being brought under Commodity Online trading brand, which will be unveiled by Prof K.V. Thomas, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on December 10.

Mr Jignesh Shah, Vice-Chairman of Multi Commodity Exchange of India and Chairman and CEO of Financial Technologies Ltd, will deliver the keynote address and unveil the new bullion portal of the company, www.bullionstreet.com.

“Commodity Online trading brand and logo will help the group to leverage on the strength of its flagship brand, which is already providing quality information and research for the growing community of commodity traders in India,” Mr George Iype, Managing Director, Commodity Online India Ltd, said at a press conference.

Trading activities

The group commenced trading activities in July 2010 and has witnessed good growth in volumes in tune with the rapid growth in commodity futures volumes in the country.

Commodity futures trading recorded a turnover of Rs 115 lakh crore in 2010-11, representing a growth of 50 per cent annually and has already crossed Rs 106 lakh crore from April to October 2011-12, representing a growth of 72 per cent over last year, a press release from the company said.

Globally, commodities have beaten equities for a fifth straight year showing that demand for commodities from developing economies is sustaining global growth that drove prices up almost four-fold in a decade.

speculation

Going ahead, commodities may witness soft landing rather than crash landing that occurred in 2008. The Euro zone debt crisis, US financial crisis and softer economic growth in emerging economies will continue to impact commodities in 2012, Mr Iype said.

Agri-commodities have witnessed positive gains in prices which reflect the fundamentals and the need for policy intervention to address supply side issues, according Mr Binu Alex, Director (Research), at Commodity Online.

“The agricultural market continues to be under the grip of middlemen and lack of symmetrical information flow across markets resulting in lower farm gate price realisation for most commodities,” he said. Most often the blame for price rise has fallen on speculation in commodity futures but so far no conclusive evidence regarding speculation driving up prices have been established, Mr Binu Alex said.

India has a glorious tradition of promoting agri-futures extending back to late 1880s when the Bombay Cotton Exchange was established, he added.

Agri data service launched

Commodity Online has launched an agri data service to provide up-to-date information and analysis on key agricultural crops that will be useful for traders and investors in spot, futures and export markets, Mr Alex said.

This would complement the futures market that provides a transparent price discovery and hedging mechanism for the farmers and traders in the country.

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