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Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) announced today that February 2012trading volume averaged 112,767 contracts per day, up 4.7% from January 2012, down 4.5% from February 2011. All products except Gold Standard, which is the most traded at TOCOM, increased from January 2012: Gold mini up 39.8% to 17,144 contracts; Crude oil and oil products up 17.2% to 19,846 contracts. Gold Standard was down 9.7% to 48,849 contracts.
In the first half of February, the market remained stagnant reflecting financial crisis in Europe. Later in the month, trade was activated as the investment money started flowing into commodities market following the easing of monetary policies by central banks around the world including the Bank of Japan.
Crude oil price went up on TOCOM as the situation around Iran became increasingly tense. At the end of February, the settlement price of the Crude Oil back contract month was up 14.1 percent from the end of January to 58,950 yen per kilo liter. Gold price also advanced in consequence of monetary easing, and the Gold back contract month was up 8.6% from the previous monthend to 4,630 yen per gram. NikkeiTOCOM Commodity Index, which gives an overall indication of the price levels on the TOCOM market as a whole, increased by 11.5% to 331.34 point.
Open interest at the end of February for all listed commodities totaled 330,229 contracts, an increase of199 contracts from the end of the January 2012.
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