Informational Efficiency in Commodity Futures Markets

Commodity futures markets provide a platform to commodity producers, consumers and traders to hedge their price risk. Price discovery and risk management are two essential roles of the commodity futures market. The commodity futures market has to be efficient to perform these functions. Agro-commodities futures market plays a crucial role in the economic foundations of a country like India that is substantially driven by the agricultural sector performance. At the same time, non-agro-commodity futures markets are imperative to both the policy makers and the other stakeholders in India since they carry a direct implication for the captive consumption and exports. This study analyses the efficiency, seasonality and macroeconomic issues in commodity futures market in India for commodities namely gold, crude oil, copper and chana (chick pea).