Trading in iron ore futures on day one at Rs 19.5 cr on ICEX

Mumbai, Jan 29 (PTI) Mumbai based Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX) today said it has successfully launched the world's first iron ore futures contract. Total volume of all the three contracts- March, April and May 2011- was 246 lots (24,600 tonnes) valued at Rs 19.50 crore on the first day of trading.ICEX iron ore March 2011 contract prices were up 1.20 per cent to trade at Rs 8,069 per tonne while April 2011 contracts traded at Rs 7,628 per tonne, ICEX said in a statement here.The contract will be on monthly expiry basis with a trading unit of 100 dry metric tons (DMT). The delivery unit is 5,000 DMT.In the international markets, the spot Australian benchmark iron ore price hit USD 185 per tonne on Friday while Indian iron ore price with 63.5 per cent iron content was quoted at USD 190 per ton including cost and freight."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," ICEX Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sanjay Chandel said.