POST-Eid holiday mood prevailed on the Karachi commodity wholesale markets during the last week as both retailers and wholesalers kept to the sidelines and did not make fresh commitments even on the essential counters.

Physical activity during the holiday-shortened week was light and mostly confined to some essential industrial raw materials, mainly oilseeds, as prices of some of them showed modest increase.

The wholesalers, on the other hand, were busy clearing a good part of their stocks of essential items after Eid holidays rather than making fresh commitments on any of the counters.

The rice sector, which came in for heavy battering on active selling by local stockists followed by reports of some problems on the export front, notably an increase in import duty by Rs21.50 per kilo by Iran on basmati type, stayed firm at the previous levels, dealers said.

Pest attack on the rice crop at the harvesting time causes major reduction in per acre yield, market sources said and added that fears of a short crop had stabilised prices around previous levels.

Other sources said that damage to the Sindh crop was nominal and indications were that the province would harvest another bumper rice crop this season. A bumper crop was also harvested in the last season, but excessive exports both of Irri and basmati types had raised the local prices to an all-time high which were still well above the normal rates.

Market sources and general consumers were expecting sharp fall in rice prices during the current season, however, reports of pest attack had so far failed to bring them down to early last years