Groundnut Oil Eases, Bullion Follows Suit

Groundnut oil prices eased on the oilseeds market here yesterday due to poor local demand coupled with weak Gujarat advices.

Prices of palm oil and castorseed June contract also eased on lack of interest. In the edible section, groundnut oil eased to close at Rs 384 from Rs 385, while groundnut bold held steady at Rs 1,960. Palm oil declined to Rs 339 from Rs 340 on poor local demand.

In the non-edible section, castor oil commercial at Rs 270, castorseed Madras at Rs 1,200, linseed oil at Rs 340 and linseed bold at Rs 1,300, held steady on stray support. In the futures section, castorseed June contract opened weak at Rs 1,245 and dropped further on poor offtake by exporters and closed at Rs 1,243.50, showing a fall of Rs 1.50 over the last close of Rs 1,250.

Cotton: Punjab cotton bounced back on eased supplies while Gujarat varieties were steady on the cotton market yesterday, dealers said. Punjab cotton recovered lost ground as arrivals dropped to 2,500/3,000 bales (170 kg each) against 4,500/5,000 bales recorded on Thursday.

In the spot deals Bengal-deshi rose by Rs 5/10 to Rs 1,530/1,575 per maund (37.32 kg) while saw-ginned cotton rose by Rs 20 to Rs 2,000/2,120 per maund.

Meanwhile PTI reports from Bathinda that north Indias cotton production is likely to be lower than the 31 lakh bales (of 170 kg each) estimated by the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) for the current season (October 1997-September 1998), dealers said. Total cotton arrival in various markets in the region, comprising Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan has so far been 22.5 lakh bales including six lakh bales of Bengal desi against 38.5 lakh bales during the corresponding period last season.

Dealers said arrivals had slowed down and only 3,000 to 4,000 bales were arriving in the market every day.

About 1.25 lakh bales more of cotton may arrive in the remaining period of the current season taking the total production to 23.75 lakh bales against 41.5 lakh bales during the last season, they said. The shortfall in cotton production has forced the closure of a number of mills and factories in the region, they claimed.

Bullion: Both the precious metals declined moderately at the local bullion market yesterday. Silver .999 and raw dropped by Rs 70 and Rs 55 to Rs 8,230 and Rs 8,110 per kg respectively following weak global advices coupled with lack of buying support from local buyers and industrial users.

Stanadard mint and 22-carat gold eased by Rs 10 each to Rs 3,940 and Rs 3,640 per ten gm respectively due to scattered buying interest from local buyers.

Prices of ten tola gold bar came down by Rs 100 to Rs 46,300 per biscuit.