National Spot Exchange is launching nickel and steel under the e-series products next month. The exchange also has been witnessing over 100 per cent increase in volumes as well as the number of new accounts opened in the month of August as the gold prices started escalating to record high levels almost on a daily basis.

NSEL currently has five products in the ‘e-series’ — e-gold, e-silver, e-copper, e-lead and e-zinc. Of the two new products, e-nickel will be available in one kg contract and e-steel in one quintal. “Nickel prices have come down from Rs 2500 a kg some time back to Rs 900 and Rs 1000. The fundamentals in steel are strong and prices are expected to firm up with increased demand from the industry. We expect good interest from the retail investors as well from the metal consumers,” Anjani Sinha, CEO of NSEL told Financial Chronicle.

The exchange has been seeing increasing interest from the investor community after the gold prices started the bull-run. “Increased interest from retail investors has been evident in the e-products as they are not affected by the day-to-day volatility in the metals. Around 17,000 new accounts were opened in the month of August against the usual 8,000 to 9,000 accounts a month. The volumes too have increased over 100 per cent. From Rs 100 to 120 crore a day, the daily turnover of e-gold on some days of August has also gone up to Rs 250 crore. Similarly, the turnover in e-silver also has gone up from Rs 160 crore to Rs 300 crore,’ he said.