Indian commodities regulator calls for position disclosure

MUMBAI Aug 8 (Reuters) - India's commodity exchanges will have to disclose all trading positions of members and their clients from Aug. 13, the markets regulator told Reuters, in a bid to boost transparency and cut volatility as a drought ramps up farm goods prices.

"Whatever the proportion of proprietary and client trades in a commodity, the exchanges have been asked to display on the websites," Ramesh Abhishek, chairman of the Forward Markets Commission, told Reuters.

Large participants in the futures market may be asked to disclose their physical market activity, Abhishek, who is responsible for regulating farm commodity futures markets, said.

The FMC oversees markets with about 11 trillion rupees ($200 billion) of monthly turnover -- the third biggest in the world after the United States and China, but open only to domestic players.

India is facing its first drought in three years and concerns over output have pushed prices of some commodities such as chick peas, soybean and edible oils to historical highs. Th e government had said futures trading was under the spotlight.

The regulator may also ask exchanges to make checks on the financial strength of members, including their net worth and their exposure on contracts as well as their losses.

The regulator has not taken any decision on re-launch of guar futures, which were suspended in late March due to allegations of price manipulation, he added. ($1 = 55.1550 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Siddesh Mayenkar and Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Jo Winterbottom)