KOCHI, India (Commodity Online): Commodity Online India Ltd, the leading 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 and through its internet trading platform.
The trading arm of the group company, Celebrus Commodities Ltd, is being brought under Commodity Online trading brand to be unveiled by Prof K V Thomas, Hon. Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on December 10, 2011 at Hotel Dream, Kochi. Mr Jignesh Shah, Vice Chairman of Multi Commodity Exchange of India and Chairman and CEO of Financial Technologies Limited will deliver the key note 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.
The group commenced trading activities in July 2010 and has witnessed tremendous 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% annually and has already crossed Rs 106 lakh crore from April to October 2011-12, representing a growth of 72% growth over corresponding period last year.
The BSE Sensex has fallen 21.8% in 2011 and is presently at 16,000 levels compared to 20,500 levels prevailing at the end of 2010. The NSE Nifty has fallen 21.64% at 4,800 levels. On the other hand MCX Energy has grown 16.96%. MCX Comdex has grown 14.37% to 3767.47 and MCX Metal has grown 12.22% to 4783.
Globally, commodities have beaten equities for a fifth straight year. It shows that demand from developing economies is sustaining global growth that drove prices up almost fourfold in a decade.
While the MSCI All-Country World Index of equities dropped 15 percent this year and yields on Treasuries fell to near- record lows, the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of 24 commodities rose 0.7 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Index has fallen 2.98% this year at 11,231.
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.
In India, gold, silver, base metals and energy continue to be hot favourites in futures exchanges while assets under management in Gold ETFs have risen to Rs 9000 cr. “India is still the largest consumer of gold and due to global economic crisis, there is a heightened interest in investing in precious metals. Our new portal, BullionStreet (www.bullionstreet.com) is meant to address the business and retail investors with information, analysis and trends in gold, silver, platinum and palladium jewellery and investments,” Mr Iype said.
“The commodity players expect the Union Government to speed up market reforms that will enable autonomy for Forward Markets Commission (FMC) and introduction of new products that will increase the trade volume and market depth,” he 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, 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.
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 both 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.
“In the last two years of survey, we have found immense wealth and high knowledge of commodities in Tier II and III cities. But equally appalling was the fact that there was no proper service provider to guide them in their trading or hedging activities. We plan to help them with the guidance they desperately need through our agri research,” Alex further added.
Corporate Profile: Commodity Online Group
Commodity Online India Ltd (COIL), through its flagship information portal, www.commodityonline.com has emerged as a leading provider of information, research, technical analysis and advisories on commodities to a growing population of traders and investors in India.
Commodity Online has grown to address the specific needs of the investor community by launching value added subscription driven services such as advisories on mobile, mobile applications, research, agri-information service, commodity b2b platforms, spot and futures market trading services.
COIL is headquartered in Kochi and has its research hub in Ahmedabad. The holding company, COIL also runs the trading arm of the group, Celebrus Commodities Ltd, that has emerged as a major commodity brokerage in India.
Commodity Online has set up one of India’s largest research house in commodities at Ahmadabad that caters to the diverse needs of investors.
The software division of COIL, Tranzmedia Netvision Pvt Ltd, provides a range of technology services for the media industry across the globe, building and managing news portals, e-commerce web sites and commodity trading back office solutions.
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For More Information
Contact: Mr Sreekumar Raghavan, Chief Strategist, Commodity Online India Limited
E-mail: sk@commodityonline.com
Mobile: 09567650430
