The wholesale Karachi commodity markets showed quietly mixed trend during the preceding week as supply and demand factors played a dominated role in setting the price trend.

The satisfying feature was, however, that there were no instances of panic buying despite tension on the border and talk of war or holding back of stocks by the commercial dealers and brokerage houses.

The situation on the borders is still tense owing to rigid position taken by the Indian prime minister Vajpayee not to talk to the president despite Sino-Russian peace overtures.

All the supply line including the foreign ones remained opened and steady arrivals from the upcountry trading centres did not allow any major change on most of the essential counters.

However some of the essential items remained under pressure as supplies far exceeded the demand and consequently prices eased owing to selling by the stockists.

Sugar was leading among them, which ruled easy after the crop figure of 3.2m tonnes was announced by the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association followed by local selling.

What worried some of the leading crushers was larger than normal unsold stocks lying with them and falling demand from the Punjab traders and Afghanistan, dealers said.

Some of the major export commodities, however, remained firm under the lead of rice sector where prices of IRRI and some types of basmati showed modest gains amid reports of short supply.

However, there were no physical shipments of the commodity during the last couple of weeks as no export deal was signed between the private sector exporters and the foreign buyers,notably for IRRI varieties.

Among the other essential commodities, wheat prices extended the previous weeks gain, and increase was fairly large,reflecting that the bullish trend may continue in the coming weeks also despite larger exportable surplus. The net rise over the week was of Rs.35.00 per bag. Pulses on the other hand remained under pressure throughout the week owing to oversupply and pre-budget selling by the importers owing to reported changes in the duty slabs. Pulses currently are exempted from levies.

Peas, gram whole,gram dal,beetle and moong suffered fall ranging from Rs5 to 50 per bag, while masoor, tuver and urad were traded at the previous levels.

Guar faced slack demand as some of the local processors stayed on the sidelines after covering their nearby positions against export orders. Prices fell by Rs5 Rice sector again showed firm trend amid slow trading as bulk of the business was done at the higher levels. IRRI-9 type and basmati were traded at the higher level on active support extended by the exporters.

While prices of IRRI-6 fell by Rs10 to 15.00 per bag, while those of IRRI-9 Sindh and basmati rose by Rs5 to 35. The largest rise of Rs100 per bag was noted in kernal basmati on buying followed by reports of revival of Gulf demand. Sela type did not show any change.0

Cereals showed firm trend as a result prices of jowar, maize and bajra rose by Rs5 to 25 on active local demand followed by reports of slow arrivals from the upcountry markets and was marked up by Rs5. Barley was also held unchanged.

Oilseed sector stayed firm trend as prices of rapeseed posted fresh gains ranging from Rs35 to 40 per 40 kg for both the Nawabshah and Dadu types owing to further increase in prices of oil and oilcakes.

Prices of cottonseed were not quoted on the trading board owing to short supply and did til and groundnut. Castorseed lacked normal support from exporters and crushers and were held unchanged for all varieties.

Oilcakes showed divergent trend.Prices of rapeseed were quoted higher by Rs5, while cottonseed cakes fell by Rs2 to 5 on renewed selling and weak oil market. Cottonseed were quoted further higher by Rs7 to 10 but rapeseed cakes were traded at the last level despite sharp increase in rapeseed prices.—M.A.