THE Karachi wholesale commodity market last week remained under pressure and fell across the board on active selling by some leading commercial houses for no apparent reasons. But some dealers believe the arrivals of new crop on a large scale may be one of the apparent reasons.

The fall was across the board touching the limit of nervous and panic selling by all and sundry. Prices of masoor, gram and fine type of basmati suffered massive decline of Rs200-1,000 per bag, still there were not many buyers who kept to sidelines anticipating fresh fall.

Dealers said the decline was led by the pulses sector as some of the leading importers unloaded their long positions apparently fearing fresh fall after the arrival of new crop from Sindh markets.

Ban on wheat imports by private sector and reports of harvesting of new wheat crop, mainly in the Sindh belt, and absence of leading buyers contributed to the steep fall on most of the essentials’ counters, they said.

Some others feared that lifting of ban on inter-province movement of wheat to keep prices stable throughout the country, could fuel price flare-up.

However, most of the brokerage houses welcomed the current across the board fall and hoped consumers were expected to benefit from the falling prices of some essential items, notably wheat, pulses and sugar.

But unlike other essentials, the rice sector remained dormant owing to reported problems on the export front amid market talk of higher local prices of IRRI types.

“Harvesting of new crop of gram, masoor and some other types has just started in the Sindh wheat belt and reports of a higher crop has triggered selling by stockists and importers fearing steep decline in prices in the coming weeks after arrivals of new crop”, they said.

An idea of price fall may well be had from the fact that masoor dal, imported variety, was marked down by Rs1,000 per bag of 100 kg and dealers predicted further fall in coming weeks.

They said the decline in pulses sector was well manifested including fall on other essentials’ counters under the lead of wheat, sugar and leading industrial raw materials.

Cereal sector also followed the market’s general line of action and fell under the lead of maize and jowar and some others followed by reports of steady arrivals from Sindh markets.

The largest fall ranging between Rs200 and 1,000 per bag was noted in masoor, gram whole and gram dal.

Kernal basmati followed them amid reports of falling export demand and quoted lower by Rs100-300 per bag. The largest decline was noted in basmati, which fell by Rs400-800 per bag.

Among IRRI types, IRRI-6 was marked up by Rs50 but IRRI-9 suffered a sharp fall of Rs100-900 while sela variety basmati was held at the last levels.

Wheat and sugar also remained under pressure in sympathy with sharp fall on other counters and were quoted lower by Rs175 per bag and Rs90 per 40 kg. Desi sugar also fell by Rs100.

Among cereals, bajra managed to finish with a modest rise of Rs50 after early fall but on local support was quoted higher by Rs50, while other cereals, notably jowar and maize came in for active selling and suffered fall ranging from Rs40-75.

Oilseed sector showed divergent trend and while some types of rapeseed rose by Rs25-75, cottonseed and cotton eased by Rs50-100 per maund. Castor seed also fell by Rs50.

Oilcakes, on the other hand, eased by Rs50-75, while rapeseed cakes were traded at the previous level amid active demand.—M.A.