Securities & Exchange Board of India(SEBI) today through a circular discontinued further trading in Chana on National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited until further notice. The prima facie reason for this discontinuation could have been potentially to curb any speculation in this commodity going ahead. However, prices over the past two months have been hovering in the broad range of 4714-5200 rupees. Contrarily, Futures observed selling pressure at resistance levels. Additionally, any upside move in chana was also being arrested by regular liquidation by National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED). NAFED has been offloading its inventories of 2018-2020 season in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Thus keeping these factors under consideration-what could be the reason for such a move……

Presently, with the festival season in the country gradually picking pace, prices of the chana in the local market are finding support to move higher. Further, the government procurement agency too potentially may not be left with enough inventories after the regular liquidation of the commodity. Additionally, the Farm Ministry has downward revised the chana production of 2020-21 season to 11.99 mln ton in its Fourth Advance Estimates from its third estimate of 12.61 mln ton.