Commexes' turnover drops 41% till March 15 of FY15

New Delhi: The turnover of commodity exchanges fell by 41 per cent to Rs 58.68 lakh crore till March 15 of 2014-15 on sharp fall in trading volumes in bullion and other commodities, according to Forward Markets Commission (FMC).

Their business stood at Rs 98.57 lakh crore in the same period of the corresponding year.

Much of the fall in turnover was seen in bullion, followed by energy, farm and metals items in the said period, as per commodity markets regulator FMC.

Experts said the decline in turnover was mainly due to higher transaction tax and shifting of investors to equity market in view of low volatility in commodity markets.

According to latest FMC data, the turnover from bullion fell by over 50 per cent to Rs 20.85 lakh crore during the April-March 15 period of this fiscal from Rs 41.99 lakh crore a year ago.

Similarly, the business from energy items like crude oil declined by 36 per cent to Rs 15.53 lakh crore from Rs 24.12 lakh crore, while for agricultural commodities, it fell by 34 per cent to Rs 10.19 lakh crore from Rs 15.39 lakh crore in the review period.

The turnover from metals also showed a decline of 30 per cent to Rs 12.06 lakh crore in April-March 15 period of FY15 from Rs 17.05 lakh crore a year ago.

FMC will soon be merged with capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had made an announcement to this effect while presenting the Budget for 2015-16 fiscal last month.

At present, there are four national and six regional level commodity exchanges operating in the country.