TRADING on the Karachi wholesale commodity markets last week was fairly active as buyers build up long positions on some counters of essentials at falling prices triggered by hasty selling by some stockists for fear of oversupply.

The market witnessed, for the first time after a couple of years, an all-round fall in prices of most essential items from the current higher levels on near-panic selling owing perhaps to pre-Eid holiday operations to avert any major decline, dealers said.

Larger arrivals of new rice crop seem to have initiated the market decline as commercial houses also liquidated in part their holdings fearing further fall.

But after the mid-week there was a considerable fall in arrivals as cargo haulers raised transport fairs to transport sacrificial animals. The interesting feature was that price of gram dal, widely used in Eid dishes, suffered sharp decline on local selling amid fears of fresh fall in the coming sessions.

The falling prices of most of the essential items may not necessarily reflect oversupply or higher crop ideas, but seems to have been caused by relatively slack ready demand, dealers said.

Eid just about a week away, unlike the previous pre-Eid sessions, there is no abnormal activity on most of the counters of essentials like pulses, sugar and wheat, they added.

Although new crop sugar is still to arrive on the market, its prices eased further for the third week in a row amid prediction of a higher crop.

After initial weakness on selling by local stockists, prices of all varieties of rice remained stable as private sector resumed its covering operations against forward sales, mainly of IRRI types.

However, market sources said fresh arrivals of rice from upcountry centres have showed a considerable decline owing to higher freight rates.

Indications are there that prices could ease further from the current levels as demand from retail consumers is expected to suffer fresh fall before Eid holiday.

Most of the cereals, on the other hand, maintained their previous levels amid fall on ready demand and were quoted at previous levels amid slow ready off take.

Pulses sector led the market decline under the lead of masoor and masoor dal, which suffered fall ranging between Rs1,000-1,310 per bag of 100 kg followed by gram whole and gram dal, urad and beetle, which also remained under pressure and fell to close lower by Rs100-200 per bag.

Wheat though showed modest fall, it remained under pressure for the third week in a row and was marked down by Rs25. On the other hand sugar was quoted lower by Rs150 on local selling. Desi sugar and gur followed it, which fell by Rs100 per bag each.

Steady arrivals of new rice crop from Sindh market caused fresh selling by local dealers and as a result prices of IRRI.6 and broken basmati were quoted lower at Rs25-50.

The largest fall of Rs600 per bag was noted in basmati for want of export demand. But kernel and sela varieties

of fine basmati were firmly held unchanged at the last levels.

Cereals also remained under pressure on reports of steady new crop arrivals and were marked down by Rs25-100 per bag for bajra and guar seeds.

Major oilseeds, including rapeseed, castor seed and til came in for renewed selling and where marked down by Rs50-100 for rape seed, and Rs100-300 for castor seed and til on lack of export demand.

But cotton, on the other, hand remained under pressure on active ginner selling and was quoted lower by Rs150 per maund.

Cottonseed, on the other hand, remained in active demand and was marked up by Rs80 despite reports of steady new crop arrivals from Sindh ginneries. Oilcakes ruled unchanged for both cottonseed and rapeseed cakes at the previous levels amid active trading followed by reports of steady arrivals.—M.A.