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Informist, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025

 

By Rajesh Gajra

 

NEW DELHI - From the base metals category, nickel is currently a big focus for the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd., according to Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Praveena Rai. The exchange really wants to make the relaunched nickel futures work, Rai told Informist on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi Monday.

 

The nickel futures contract was relaunched by MCX on Aug. 18 with modified specifications. Since the relaunch, the contract has recorded an average daily turnover of around INR 23 million. There was no trading in nickel futures on the exchange from March 2023 to July.

 

In 2022-23 (Apr-Mar), the average daily turnover of nickel futures had fallen substantially to around INR 12 million from FY22 when it was INR 17.26 billion. In the nickel futures relaunch on Aug. 18, MCX cut the trading unit contract sharply to 250 kg from 1,500 kg, and fixed the third Wednesday of the month as the expiry day for the monthly contracts.

 

Nickel feeds the stainless steel industry and not necessarily the entire steel industry, Rai said. Worldwide, the nickel industry is driven by stainless steel production. Nickel instils the resilience and formability in stainless steel products.

 

MCX provides steel rebar contracts on its platform but there have been no trades in this contract for several months. The exchange wants to come to the steel side of things too and bring it up, according to Rai.

 

The exchange is not deterred by the zero trading volume in steel rebar contract in terms of exploring more commodities to add to its existing products. In base metals, MCX currently offers futures contracts in copper, zinc, aluminium, lead, nickel, and steel. It also offers options on futures contracts in copper and zinc.

 

"We are doing both – we are looking at what is the need of the market for new commodities and we are also picking up some of our existing contracts, like nickel which was an existing one, and energise them," Rai said. MCX aims to give the languishing commodities a fresh lease of life; it is a work in progress, she said.

 

Interaction with brokers is very important, they are "our bread and butter", Rai said. But each one of MCX's contracts is linked to a different industry, she said. "So, for nickel, we have to work with the stainless steel industry; for rebar, we have to work with the steel industry," Rai said.

 

Currently, on MCX, copper is the largest traded base metal futures contract. In August, copper futures contract had an average daily turnover of INR 11.64 billion. Zinc futures contract had the second largest average daily turnover of INR 3.49 billion in August among base metals, followed by futures contracts on aluminium, lead, and nickel.

 

On the National Stock Exchange, MCX shares Monday closed at INR 7,631.50 Monday, 0.3% from the previous close.  End

 

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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