Indian rupee to be traded in the futures market, dealers apprehensive

By Vipin Agnihotri

Lucknow, India: It has come into the notice of The India Street that for the first time in the history, the Indian rupee is going to be traded in the futures market. According to sources, trading is scheduled to start on June 7 on the Dubai Gold and Commodity Exchange (DGCX).

It is worth mentioning in this regard that while DGCX chairman Colin Griffith announced the launch of the world's very first Indian Rupee currency contract, some of the dealers in India have expressed apprehension to The India Street that the move might enhance volatility in the currency.

The pivotal factor here is that, as the transaction will take place in Dubai, Reserve Bank of India cannot do anything. Apart from that, there would not be any settlement in Indian rupee in the transaction. “RBI was unable to object to the move though it could affect the rupee's market value,” pointed out M Subri, a senior Forex dealer.

At the present juncture, rupee trades in non-deliverable forward market in Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai and what’s more only big players participate. “While Rupee will be the underlying currency on DGCX, the transaction will be in dollar terms and trading will be open to everyone,” pointed out Rahul Bhandari, noted Indian economist.

Now, as Reserve Bank of India has allowed an individual to remit $100,000 a year overseas, a requirement is being felt for an international futures market. The interesting aspect in the whole issue is that the value of rupee in the global futures market identical to DGCX would be influenced by its value in the domestic market. In the domestic forward market, a transaction is settled with the physical exchange of rupee.

According to experts, at DGCX, each Indian rupee contract would represent Rs 20 lakh. Prices will be quoted in US cents per Rs 100, with a minimum price fluctuation of $ 0.000001 per rupee. Furthermore, at any point in time DGCX will list the trading price for the present and next two calendar months, in addition to the next three calendar quarterly months.

After US & UAE, Singapore gets bullish on India’s property boom

Impressed by the buoyancy of Indian real estate, Singapore property firms are seeing to establish their presence in the country with high profile projects.

To name a few, there is RSP Architects, The WIRE Group, CPG Group and JTC Corp’s Jurong International, sitting on projects totaling more than 500 million sq ft of floor space.

Jurong International is coming up with a Mega Township in Amritsar. The project will spread over 80Ha. Close on the heels is RSP Architects with a project concerning development of a 1 million sq ft IT Park in Bangalore.

When the craze of developing Special Economic Zone (SEZs) in India has overpowered the domestic builders, how can the international developers stay behind? Joining the SEZ race is CPG Group, a new player from Singapore, who is all set to build a SEZ over the land of 13,000Ha in Mundra, Gujarat.

To see the involvement of Singapore real estate firms in broader way, picture the available office space in Singapore’s Central region, including the shopping malls and corporate towers in its downtown core and Orchard Road. Multiplying the figure by 4 will give the exact sense of business. Entire of which in India is solely being handled by a single Singapore design company – RSP Architects.

Even smaller players, such as CPG, are incredibly busy. CPG has at least 30 million sq ft of projects completed or under construction. Apart from biggies like Jurong which has as much as half of it, other small players, such as CPG, are also busy in pushing their property projects on course.

A number of important real estate projects in Tier II cities like Hyderabad are in hands of Singapore architects. Around some US $45 billion worth of projects are under construction across in India, says the data showcased by property surveys.