The Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), country’s largest commodity market is likely to come up with its much delayed Initial Public Offering (IPO) in this financial year. The IPO is expected to raise around Rs 700 – Rs 750 from the capital market. The company is offering around 12.6% of its stake through the public offering. The company would offer shares at face value of Rs 10 per equity share. The price band of the MCX IPO is expected to hover around Rs 1200. This information is based on the fact that the last private placement of MCX with a face value of Rs 5 per share was executed at Rs 620 per share. The MCX is offering around 64.27 lakh shares through the IPO.

There are five officially recognized electronic multi-commodity national exchanges in India including MCX, NCDEX, NMCE, ICEX and ACE. These five national multi-commodity exchanges accounted for 99.5% of the turnover of commodity futures contracts traded in India. MCX is the largest among these and have above 80% of the market share of the Indian commodity futures exchange industry.

MCX allows trading in more than 50 commodities across sectors like bullion, metals, energy, weather, and agricultural products. The Exchange is the world's largest exchange in Silver, the second largest in Gold, Copper and Natural Gas and the third largest in Crude Oil futures, with respect to the number of futures contracts traded.

Headquartered in Mumbai, Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) is a state-of-the-art electronic commodity futures exchange. The demutualised Exchange has permanent recognition from the Government of India to facilitate online trading, and clearing and settlement operations for commodity futures across the country.

Having started operations in November 2003, today, MCX holds a market share of over 80%* (87.3% during the nine months ended December 31, 2011 and 82.4% in FY2011) of the Indian commodity futures market, and has more than 2,153 registered members operating through over 2,96,896 including CTCL trading terminals spread over 1,572 cities and towns across India. The Exchange was the fifth largest^ commodity exchange, among all the commodity exchanges considered in the Futures Industry Association survey, in terms of the number of contracts traded for the six months ended June 30, 2011

MCX offers more than 40 commodities across various segments such as bullion, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, energy, and a number of agri-commodities on its platform. The Exchange introduces standardised commodity futures contracts on its platform. These contracts in futures exchanges provide an anonymous trading environment for ideal price discovery. The Exchange is the world's largest exchange in Silver, the second largest in Gold, Copper and Natural Gas and the third largest in Crude Oil futures, based on the comparison of the trading volumes of our Exchange with those of the leading global commodity futures exchanges in the world, for the calendar year 2010 and the six months ended June 30, 2011.

As of December 31, 2010, MCX has more than 2,107 registered members operating through over 180,000 trader work stations in over 1,139 cities across India. MCX emerged as the 5th largest exchange in the world.