The scale of growth in Indian commodity markets during this decade alone has been nothing short of remarkable. Many Indian commodity futures are based on a smaller size of underlying than US or European equivalents, making direct comparison difficult, but as one example the country's largest exchange, Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) saw the equivalent of over 45,000 New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) crude oil futures transacted on 14 February.
MCX has become the world's second largest natural gas futures exchange, trailing only Nymex, while government figures indicated that the underlying value of commodity futures traded in the country grew from $22.66m in 2002-3 to $498.58m in 2005-6.
However, overseas participants have yet to see their bar from participating in India lifted, and while hedge fund managers contacted by FO Week say that it is possible to achieve exposure to the country's futures, doing so is sufficiently expensive...