MCX futures turnover soars 22% to `65.91 lakh crore in FY19

New Delhi: India's largest commodity exchange MCX's total turnover in futures trading rose 22 per cent to Rs 65.91 lakh crore in 2018-19 driven by bullion, base metals and energy contracts, helping the bourse to achieve record market share of over 91 per cent.

According to data available on MCX's website, the exchange's total turnover in futures trade stood at Rs 65,91,428 crore in 2018-19, up 22.45 per cent from Rs 53,82,996 crore in the previous year.

The average daily turnover of futures trading on MCX was Rs 25,648 crore in the just concluded fiscal, up 21 per cent from Rs 21,193 crore in 2017-18.

As per the data, the turnover grew 37 per cent year-on-year in energy, 20 per cent in base metal, and 11 per cent in bullion. The turnover of base metal increased to Rs 25,25,601 crore in 2018-19 from Rs 21,12,533 crore in the previous fiscal, while energy contracts' turnover rose to Rs 24,50,777 crore from Rs 17,92,678 crore.

Bullion contracts had a turnover of Rs 15,13,817 crore in the last fiscal, up from Rs 13,63,703 crore in 2017-18.

However, the turnover of agri-items fell to Rs 1,01,233 crore from Rs 1,14,082 crore. Market experts attributed various factors for rise in MCX's total turnover from futures trading, such as early start of trading and extended day-time trading hours, volatility in rupee value and rally in gold prices. Some policy decisions like the RBI not permitting gold hedging on overseas exchanges and SEBI allowing Category-III alternative investment funds to trade in commodity derivatives also helped in higher business.