The country?s commodities exchanges are proving remarkably resilient. Despite turmoil on the Indian stock markets and global commodities markets, volumes in the Multi-Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) & National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) have remained stable in the last three months.

Officials with both bourses attribute the trend to the government?s recent steps to grant the sector greater autonomy, including giving its watchdog sharper teeth. They also maintain it?s a sign of a maturing of the commodities market in the country. However, experts tracking the market indicate that there has been a downside bias in the last two weeks.

Thanks to the stock market turmoil, average monthly traded volumes on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) have come down from Rs 19,441 crore in January 2008 to around Rs 14,007 crore in the current month, registering a sharp fall of 27.95%. In the corresponding period, average monthly volumes on the MCX have been around Rs 3.4 lakh crore, while those on the NCDEX have been around Rs 70,000 crore.

Volumes on the NSE have fallen from Rs 4.47 lakh crore in January 2008 to Rs 2.8 lakh crore in February 2008–a huge fall of 37.36%. Until March 24, NSE?s volume of trade was around Rs 1.82 lakh crore.

?The commodities market has emerged an alternate asset class among investors,? PH Ravi Kumar, managing director & chief executive officer at NCDEX, told FE. He acknowledged that due to the fall in the stock market, there had been a small movement of capital to commodities exchanges. ?We are trying to independently substantiate the movement,? Kumar said.

Last week, the global commodities markets saw their sharpest fall in several decades. Gold prices tumbled by about 8% and crude oil prices dropped by 6.35%. This significant fall after rising for months indicate that the bull period in commodities across the globe is over.

?There will be corrections in the Indian commodities market as metals and crude prices are not decided domestically,? said Jayant Manglik, head-commodity business, Religare Commodities. He said the US slowdown and movement of the dollar were bound to adversely impact Indian exchanges in coming weeks.

?Investor confidence in commodities markets remain robust,? an MCX official said.