METLDEX: India's First Tradable Real-Time Base Metals Index

On 19 October, MCX (Multi-Commodity Exchange of India) launched the country's first real-time Base Metals Index, i.e. MCX iCOMDEX Base Metal METLDEX, in the commodity derivatives segment.

It will track the real-time performance of a basket of MCX base metals futures. Up till now, domestic metal prices pivoted to the London Metal Exchange (LME) prices.

METLDEX is based on the basket of five base metals: zinc (5 metric tonnes), copper (2.5 mt), nickel (1.5 mt), lead (5 mt) and aluminium (5 mt). Presently it carries around 33.06 percent weight for Zinc, 29.81 percent for Copper, 14.77 percent for Nickel, 12.88 percent for Lead and 9.48 percent weight for Aluminium.

On Monday, MCX launched three futures expiring in the months of November 2020, December 2020 and January 2021. At least 3 consecutive month contracts will be available at all times.

The contract has a lot size equal to 50 times of underlying MCX iCOMDEX Base Metals Index. The tick size (minimum price movement) for the contract is Re 1. The contracts would be settled in cash at the end of the expiry of each contract.

In August, the exchange had launched trading in bullion index futures on MCX iCOMDEX Bullion index or the MCXBULLDEX.