ICEX iron ore March 2011 contract prices were up 1.20% to trade at Rs 8,069 per tonne

Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX) on Saturday launched iron ore futures contract along with Multi Commodity Exchange.

ICEX iron ore March 2011 contract prices were up 1.20% to trade at Rs 8,069 per tonne while April 2011 contracts also traded at Rs 7,628 per tonne. The contract will be on monthly expiry basis with a trading unit of 100 dry metric tonne (DMT). The delivery unit is 5,000 DMT. In the international markets, the spot Australian benchmark iron ore price hit $ 185 per tonne on Friday while Indian iron ore price with 63.5% iron content was quoted at $190 per tonne.
Total volume of all the three contracts March, April and May 2011 was 246 lots (24,600 tonne) valued at Rs 19.50 crore on the first day of trading.

“Based on the run up to launch of Iron ore contract, trade volumes on first day of trade on ICEX were robust with good participation and liquidity seen in its March and April contracts,” Sanjay Chandel, CEO, ICEX, said.
“In coming days we will see more physical market participants using ICEX platform for effective risk management and hedging activities. This is possible due to our contract meeting international standards and transparency in price discovery,” he said.