India spot gold exchange may launch Oct 26 -official

By Ruchira Singh

MUMBAI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A planned exchange for spot trading in gold in India is likely to be launched at the end of October, an executive from one of the exchange's stake holders said on Wednesday.

"We are aiming to launch it on Dhanteras (festival on October 26)," Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director and chief executive officer of Reliance Money told Reuters.

Reliance Money, a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has a stake in the planned spot exchange, Bandyopadhyay said.

The other stake holders would be trade body Bombay Bullion Association, the Bombay Stock Exchange and technology company IT People (India) Ltd.

"Bombay Bullion Association itself has 400 members... (plus) we will start a membership drive... we aim to have 100,000 members by end 2009," he said.

He did not say how much trade the exchange is likely to do, but said that the traded volumes could be a lot higher than India's gold imports of 700 to 800 tonnes. (Editing by Harish Nambiar)