The notable feature of the week was that both pulses and rapeseed led the market decline on active selling.
The steep decline in rapeseed, which had risen to an all time high level, was attributed to steady arrivals of new crop from Sindh markets.
Dealers said other destabilising factor was steady arrival of some essential items from upcountry trading centres and a substantial fall in local demand, mainly at retail level.
Much of the activity, however, remained confined to pulses sector, particularly imported stuff as some importers released large stocks fearing strict steps by the government against hoarding.
They said prices of essential items, during the last couple of months, had risen to record levels and still stood at peak level despite government’s corrective measures including opening new outlets through utility stores.
Other factor which forestalled further increase in prices of essential items was arrivals of new crop of gram, which had a sympathetic negative impact on higher prices of other pulses, they said.
Although imported wheat has checked further increase in wheat prices, the arrival of new crop from lower Sindh where harvesting was resumed a bit earlier, also eased prices from the current higher levels, floor brokers said.
Sugar prices also remained under pressure owing to a record crop of well over 4.2 million tons, well above the local annual demand of 3.5 million tons.
Some sugar mills are dumping the commodity in the wholesale markets, which in turn did not allow fresh increase in prices and on the other hand checked panic buying by general consumers.
Rice sector, however, remained tight and prices of both kernel and IRRI type were either held unchanged or rose sharply as bulk of the record crop has already been physically exported.
Prices of fine types including sela and kernel type of basmati stayed at their record levels and may ease after new crop arrives some time in September, brokers said.
Among essential items which maintained upward drive were IRRI-6 and IRRI-9, soaring to all-time peak level at the fag-end of the week. Both were quoted higher by Rs100 to Rs200 per bag.
On the other hand some type of pulses came in for active selling by importers and fell by Rs200 to Rs500 per bag for masoor whole and masoor dal followed by Urad, which also fell by Rs250.
Other varieties, including gram whole, gram dal, moong and beetle were held unchanged at the last levels but dealers said they may also ease from the current higher levels in sympathetic selling by importers.
Sugar, however, did not show any change for the second week in a row as supplies matched the ready demand. But desi sugar and qur came in for fresh demand and were quoted higher by Rs100 to Rs200 per 40 kg.
Among major industrial raw material, rapeseed came in for active selling at higher levels followed by reports of steady new crop arrivals from Sindh markets.
Prices of all varieties were marked down by Rs125 to Rs250 and dealers predicted further fall during the next week with improvements in supply.
Prices of cottonseed fell by Rs50 on selling by ginners. Cotton prices were held unchanged at previous levels. Til soared to all-time high level and was quoted Rs600 per 40 kg followed by reports of a short crop.
Among cereals barley was the only exception, which rose by Rs100 while maize, jowar and bajra were traded at previous levels.
Oilcakes showed easy trend and fell by Rs5 to Rs15 for cottonseed cake, while rapeseed cakes fell by Rs80 to Rs90 in sympathy with fall in rapeseed prices.—MA