The consumer affairs ministry has assured the pepper and jeera traders that it would look into their demands.

A number of traders have complained to the Ministry that speculative cartels of the bear lobby has been manipulating the commodity market through intra-day trade involving hundreds of tonnes of pepper and jeera.

Traders have also complained that these manipulative tactics block the investors and exporters from entering the market in a big way and use the hedging facility.

Forced by the complaint, the he consumer affairs ministry has called a high-level meeting of Forward Markets Commission officials and the product committee members of pepper and jeera in New Delhi this week.

Ministry officials said the demands from pepper and jeera traders will be discussed and a solution will be worked out.

Meanwhile, pepper futures bounced back on Monday on reports that the ministry has called a meeting of FMC officials to discuss complaints from traders.

June contract on NCDEX shot up by Rs 377 a quintal to close at Rs 13,695 from Rs 13,318 last Saturday. The increase in other contracts was from Rs 442 to Rs 563 a quintal.

On NMCE, July contract went up by Rs 383 a quintal to close at Rs 13,800 from Rs 13,417 at close last weekend. The rise in other contracts was from Rs 320 to Rs 576 a quintal.

Total turnover on NCDEX also shot up by 15,868 tonnes to 24,533 tonnes on Monday while on NMCE it increased by 1,620 tonnes to 2,283 tonnes.

Total open interest on NCDEX dropped by 199 tonnes to 23,346 tonnes. June and July positions fell by 608 tonnes and 819 tonnes respectively to 2,309 tonnes and 9,331 tonnes. However, August position increased by 1,137 tonnes to 8,531 tonnes.

On NMCE, total open interest moved up by 62 tonnes to 2,367 tonnes. July position declined by14 tonnes to 1,647 tonnes.

Spot prices also moved up in tandem with the futures prices up by Rs 200 a quintal to close at Rs 13,400 (un-garbled) and Rs 14,000 (MG 1).