February 12, 2007	Monday	Muharram 23, 1428

TRADINNG on the Karachi wholesale market failed to pick up to a normal level last week as both brokerage houses and commercial traders mostly remained conspicuous by their absence followed by reports of comfortable ready position.

Among the essential items, prices of some pulses eased from the previous higher levels, while rice sector showed further gains owing to active support being extended by the exporters to cover their forward sales to various countries.

The activity in part was also slowed down owing to upcoming annual elections of the Karachi Wholesale Grain and Seed Merchants group on Sunday (Feb 10) as most of the contestants were busy in gaining support of the voters, market sources said.

Haji Suleman, managing partner of Usman Traders said the elections are expected to be keenly contested as leading commodity traders are in the run.

“The late rain in the Punjab grain belt has damaged the quality of some of the export-oriented commodity, which in turn has caused price flare-up in them, notably guar seeds”, another leading commodity broker Muhammad Aslam said adding “most of the processors are worried over the rising costs of value-added finished commodity products”.

The other stabilising factor was steady arrivals from the upcountry trading centres, which did not allow speculative buying from any quarter and as a result prices of most of the essential items remained stable around the previous levels.

The notable feature of the week was that arrivals of new crop sugar from various mills were claimed to be fairly steady and did not allow fresh increase in prices in the major trading centres, dealers said.

However, the news on the sugarcane supply front were not that encouraging as millers are said to be paying much higher prices as compared to officially fixed prices in an apparent effort to keep the wheels of their mills moving, they said.

Procurement prices of sugarcane from mill to mill varied from Rs60 to Rs75 per mound, which in turn would be added to the higher production costs and expensive sugar prices, they fear.

On the export front, physical shipments of rice to various countries were maintained on the higher side to meet the deadlines but unlike the previous prices remained stable around the previous levels.

Other essential items, notably wheat and pluses did not show much activity as demand from the upcountry dealers was on the lower side of the weekly average. Some of the varieties were traded lower.

Among essentials items, rice varieties came in for active support and rose by Rs25 to Rs75 per bag for both IRRI-6 and IRRI-9, while basmati was quoted higher by Rs50 per bag.

Pulses followed them, which rose by Rs75 to Rs113 per bag for peas and urad types, while beetle, gram whole, gram dal and masoor varieties were marked down by Rs50 to 125 per bag on selling prompted by steady arrivals from the upcountry markets.

Wheat followed them, which showed a fractional fall of Rs5, while sugar prices differed from area to area amid relatively slow demand thanks to reports of comfortable ready position.

With the exception of bajra, which was quoted higher by Rs10, cereals were firmly held at the last levels under the lead of maize, jowar and barely.

Prices of major industrial raw materials also remained stable around the previous levels under the lead of guar seed but processors said they are well above their export parity levels.

Oilseed sector showed quietly steady trend as prices of major seeds including cottonseed and rapeseed were quoted unchanged at the previous levels.

Rapeseed Nawabshah type was an exception, which rose by Rs20 and so did til, up by Rs100 on revival of export demand. Castor seed was traded around the previous levels.

Oilcakes were quoted higher by Rs10 for cottonseed cakes owing to pressure on ready supplies due to a short cotton crop, rapeseed cakes were held unchanged at the last levels.—M.A.