July 24, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 13,1423

KARACHI, July 23: Pakistan’s palm oil market remained mixed to bullish over the past week but importers were reluctant to book new orders because of high international prices, dealers said on Tuesday.

“The importers are cautious on daily fluctuations in palm oil prices at international market,” said Akber Puri, a palm oil importer in Karachi. “It (the market) is likely to follow a mixed trend in coming days.”

Mr Puri said buyers were holding back on big orders as they wanted international prices to settle to a level, but routine buying was continued. He said a slowdown in imports had kept domestic prices at a stable level.

Traders said palm oil prices on the international market had posted against last week but reports of cool and wet US weather this week had depressed the prices in the Malaysian market.

Another Pakistani palm oil importer said local traders had more than 60,000 tons of unsold stocks to meet the domestic demand and that short-term market outlook was mixed.

“I don’t see any major activity other than the routine buying from the importers to cover their stock position,” he added.—Reuters