Bulk of the buying interest remained confined to the pulse sector where prices suffered sharp fall as importers liquidated their long positions followed by reports of steady arrivals from the foreign markets, dealers said.
But on the other hand rice prices resumed their upward drive after last week's relative lull on this counter as exporters made fresh covering purchases against the forward sales, they said.
Stray covering purchases were also witnessed on some other essential counters, notably where prices fell partly on steady arrivals from upcountry markets and partly to release of fresh stocks of the imported stuff by the importers. Gram whole and gram dal led the list.
Market sources said gram crop was being harvested in some parts of Sindh and fears of steady arrivals of the crop unnerved the stockists and commercial houses who sold in part their holding fearing further decline in prices.
“Pakistan is on the threshold of harvesting another good gram crop, which could ease prices further after it starts arriving on the local market in a big way”, they said.
Unlike previous week, rice prices, on the other hand, did show fresh increase and were firmly held above the last levels amid light trading. But private sector rice exporters made modest fresh commitments as local prices are claimed to be much higher than their export parity levels, they added.
Dealers said arrivals of some of commodities from upcountry centres are far below normal figures owing to holding back of stocks by some of prominent stockists, which in turn keep prices on the higher side.
Among the other essentials, wheat prices showed modest increase followed by reports that a ship loaded with wheat, is to sail out to Gulf shortly.
The government has allowed export of half a million tons of the commodity out of official surplus stocks before the arrival of new crop in April.
But the situation on the sugar front was not clear amid conflicting reports about selling prices. However, local dealers reported that stray new crop arrivals are reaching here but they could hardly influence downward the wholesale prices.
The activity on the industrial raw material sector was slow, although prices did not show much change from the previous week's levels. Some of them tended higher at the fag-end of the week.
The market advance was led by the rice sector where prices of sela type showed the largest rise of Rs200 to Rs600 per bag of 100 kg on reports of fresh export deals.
Basmati, IRRI-9, and broken basmati followed them on active local demand and posted gains ranging from Rs50 to 150 per bag. Arrival from the upcountry markets were said to be on the lower side of the weekly average.
Other essential items were mostly quoted around previous levels barring IRRI-6, which fell by Rs10 on renewed selling by the local stockists.
Pulses remained under pressure throughout last week owing to oversupply and suffered fall ranging from Rs125 to Rs200 per bag for urad, gram whole, gram dal and moong, while peas and beetle fell by Rs25 to Rs50.
Among industrial raw materials guar seed was marked down by Rs25 , while others were quoted unchanged and so did cereals under the lead of maize, jowar and bajra.
Oilseed sector also stayed dull as prices of major seeds including cottonseed, rapeseed, til and castor seed were traded at the last levels amid slack demand.
Oilcakes, on the other hand, suffered fall of Rs10 each for rapeseed and cottonseed cakes on selling followed by steady arrivals from the upcountry markets.-—M.A.