MIXED trend was seen on the Karachi wholesale commodity markets during the preceding week as commercial houses and brokers remained busy in two-way activity followed by the reports of a comfortable ready position.

Among the major essential items, both wheat and sugar remained under pressure and fell, while others including pulses showed modest increase because of the revival of demand associated with the holy month of Ramazan.

But there were no reports of price flare-up on any of the essential counters with the exception of pulses, notably gram whole and gram Dal whose consumption increases under the lead of gram and gram Dal during the holy month, as both are used in after in various forms.

Arrivals from the upcountry markets were fairly steady, which in turn did not allow speculative buying on any of the counters but rather prompted selling on some of the counters, including wheat and sugar.

A sharp decline of Rs100 per bag in sugar prices, despite the advent of the holy month, was attributed larger unsold stock of the previous crop and reports that a couple of mills have resumed the new crushing season some two weeks back and new crop arrivals have forced the commercial stockists to unload their positions and the consequent fall.

But the Punjab millers, who are protesting against the higher sugarcane prices and are demanding some incentives to offset the negative impact of higher sugarcane prices are yet to resume their operations.

Market sources say millers are expected to start the new crushing season from Nov 28, and there is a possibility of further decline in prices after the new crop from Punjab starts arriving in the market.

Most of the Punjab traders are now buying the commodity from here but when it will be available in the Punjab markets, their absence could further lower the local prices, they added.

But despite talks of sales of exportable surplus to some prospective importers including Iran, wheat prices eased from the recent highs amid relative activity.

Some dealers claimed as the Afghan export outlets have been virtually closed owing to war, the local oversupply of wheat has caused a major dent in the ruling prices followed by the selling by traders.

Among the essentials, sugar came in for renewed selling and fell by Rs100per bag of 100kg on active local selling prompted by the reports of rise in arrivals from the upcountry markets. Arrivals of new crop from Sindh mills were active but failed to meet the pre-Ramazan demand from the wholesalers.

Desi sugar and Gur were also marked down by the same amount followed by the reports of steady new crop arrivals from the upcountry markets.

Pulses showed firm trend and rose under the lead of gram whole, Moong, beetle, gram Dal, Masoor and Urad and were quoted higher by Rs50 to 75 per bag amid active ready trading. Tuver was an exception, which fell by Rs90.

Other imported varieties were held unchanged barring Masoor, which came in for stray buying at the previous rates. All others were held unchanged.

The rice sector also followed the lead of other essentials as the prices of Basmati and IRRI types were traded at the last week’s level amid good demand from the local export houses.IRRI-white broken was an exception, which came in for active selling followed by the reports of higher new crop arrivals and suffered a decline of Rs80 per bag.

Wheat came in for active selling despite reports of fresh export business and was quoted further lower by Rs400 owing to larger arrivals from the upcountry markets and cut in mill supply rates.

Guar followed the lead of other raw materials and rose by Rs5 on renewed mill-buying. The arrivals of new crop arrivals were steady.

Cereals lacked normal trading interest and the prices were held unchanged for Bajra, but maize and Jowar were quoted lower by Rs10 and higher by Rs50 to 60, respectively.

The oilseed sector again showed steady trend as all major seeds including rapeseed and castorseed came in for active two-way activity. While Dadu type rose by another Rs5 followed by the reports of firm oil markets, cottonseed maintained their previous levels. Til rose by Rs15.

Other major oilseeds including cottonseed and til, came in for active support despite reports of steady new crop arrivals and finally ended with good gains.

Oilcakes depicted divergent trend amid active trading and while rapeseed cakes fell by Rs5, cottonseed cakes rose by Rs15 on renewed buying despite reports of steady new crop arrivals.—M.A