NCDEX to launch CER contracts

[K.Karthik Raja]

NCDEX to launch CER contracts

National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), India's largest
agri trading platform, today announced the launch of futures contract
in certified emission reduction (CER) - a clean development mechanism
(CDM) product.

The intention matching contract of CER would be made available on
April 10 for delivery in December 2008. The subsequent yearly
contracts are likely to be launched within two months for deliveries
in December between 2009 and 2012.

The trade is likely to reflect the price on overseas futures platforms
including Nordpool, European Climate Exchange - ICE , European Energy
Exchange - Eurex, and NYMEX's Green Exchange. The trade size in each
lot has been fixed at 500 CERs with a client-wise limit of 11,000
lots. The member-wise limit has been set at 66,000 lots.

The CER futures contracts are likely to benefit domestic carbon credit
generators as they have been selling CER at 20% of the prevailing
price on the European futures trading platform.

"Now, with trading starting on a domestic platform, domestic sellers
would be able to trade at the current prevailing price in the global
market," said P H Ravikumar, MD and CEO, NCDEX, at the launch of the
contract here on Wednesday.

K.Karthik Raja