To control the rising wheat prices, the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) has hiked the deposit money to 23 per cent from today.
The deposit money (margin) has been increased to 23 per cent from 13 per cent for wheat traders. The margin is a minimum percentage of money that traders are required to deposit with the exchange to trade in the commodity futures.
Following direction from the Forward Markets Commission, NCDEX said in a circular that it has decided to charge 10 per cent as special margin on buyers in all running and yet to be launched contracts of wheat with effect from today.
The deposit money has been increased to check speculators and price rise, commodity brokerage firm GRG Wealth Management analyst Chowda Reddy said.
Wheat prices at NCDEX have risen by 38 per cent since June on apprehension that the crop may get affected due to poor rains, especially in Punjab and Haryana, he said.
The September contract of wheat had hit its all-time high at Rs 1,612 per quintal yesterday on the exchange platform.Currently, the prices are ruling down at Rs 1,570 per quintal due to an increase in deposit money.
Last year, the country harvested a record wheat production of 93.90 million tonnes. Due to bumper crop, the government has allowed exports.