Groundnut Oil Takes A Tumble, Bullion Gleams

Groundnut oil tumbled down sharply at the oilseeds market yesterday on heavy arrivals from the producing regions as against poor local offtake.

Weak advices from Gujarat also aided the downtrend. Castor oil ruled subdued. In the industrial section, castorseeds and its oil declined due to lack of enquiries from shippers and soap manufacturers. Linseeds and its oil ruled quiet.

In the futures market, castorseeds March opened lower at Rs 1161 on overnight selling. Later, prices recovered on short covering by leading operators and closed at Rs 1163.50, showing no change from the previous close.

Groundnut oil dropped to Rs 362 from Rs 367. Castor oil commercial eased to Rs 273 from Rs 274. Castorseeds ready Madras softened to Rs 1214 from Rs 1219 previously. Groundnuts ready at Rs 1930, palm oil at Rs 302, linseed oil at Rs 340 and linseeds ready at Rs 1300 were unaltered from the previous.

Sugar: Prices improved marginally on account of better demand at the wholesale sugar market yesterday.

Ready delivery sugar S-30 improved to Rs 1465/1501 per quintal while sugar M-30 finished at Rs 1492/1536 per quintal on increased local offtake, traders said. The rates per quintal were small Sugar S-30 Rs 1465/1501and Medium sugar M-30 Rs 1492/1536.

Non ferrous metals: Prices of all metals held steady on the non ferrous metals market yesterday. The long holiday weekend in the overseas market held prices steady in the absence of direction from the London Metal Exchange (LME).

Copper scrap heavy was qouted at Rs 106.00, Copper wire bar Rs 116.00, Copper utensils Rs 94.50 while brass scap went for Rs 82.50, brass sheets cutting

Rs 88.25, aluminium scrap Rs 62.50, aluminium ingots Rs 82.00, zinc Rs 72.50, lead Rs 39.50, tin Rs 327.00 and nickel Rs 325.00.

Bullion: Gold and silver prices shot up sharply on brisk buying at the bullion market yesterday.

The sharp spurt in the yellow metal was on account of heavy seasonal buying as against poor arrivals coupled with bullish overseas advices.

Standard gold skyrocketed by Rs 85.00 to Rs 4065 from Rs 3980 previously. 22-carat gold was nominally quoted higher by Rs 80.00 to Rs 3760 from Rs 3680. Ten-tola gold bar .999 purity shot up by Rs 1000 to Rs 47,600 from the last close of rs 46,600.

Silver prices also flared up owing to good demand from industrial units as against shortage of stocks. Silver ready .999 fineness rose by Rs 55 to Rs 8205 from Rs 8150 previously.

Raw silver .916 fineness and tenderable silver both enhanced their earleir positio by Rs 55 each to close at Rs 8105 and Rs 8210 from the last close of Rs 8050 and Rs 8155 respectively.