Groundnut Oil Up, Sugar Weakens, Gold Steady

Groundnut oil continued to witness a firm trend on better demand and restricted arrivals from the producing centres at the wholesale oils and oilseeds market here yesterday.

Industrial oils ruled firm-to-steady, while imported palmolein ruled firm. In futures section, castor seeds March '98 remained untraded while June contract opened higher and firmed up towards closing.

Groundnut oil firmed up further by Re 1 at Rs 385 per 10 kg. Arrivals were put at around 70-80 tonnes a day. Linseed and kardi oils improved Rs 5 each to Rs 340 and Rs 410 per 10 kg respectively.

Rapeseed oil-refined and soyaoil refined edged up further by Re 1 and Rs 2 to Rs 338 and Rs 345 per 10 kg respectively on improved industrial demand, while coconut oil white advanced by Rs 25 to Rs 465 per 10 kg. Imported palmolein firmed up Re 1 at Rs 340 per 10 kg on paucity of ready stock. In futures, June contract opened Rs 5 higher at Rs 1245 a quintal and firmed up to Rs 1251. It declined to Rs 1245 before closing to Rs 1250 a quintal. In oilseeds, kardiseeds improved by Rs 25 to Rs 1,475 per quintal on improved industrial offtake. Castorseeds Madras and Maharashtra quality firmed up further by Rs 5 each to Rs 1200 and Rs 1194 per quintal respectively.

Sugar: A weak trend continued in sugar prices on dull consumer offtake coupled with brisk arrivals here yesterday. Sugar S-30 eased further to Rs 1400/1437 a quintal as against the previous level of Rs 1405/1440. The M-30 grade slid further to Rs 1420/1490 as against the previous level of Rs 1420/1495 a quintal. Sugar for the check post deliveries were quoted lower at Rs 1380/1390 a quintal for S-30 and Rs 1400/1455 for the M-30 grade.

Non-ferrous metals: A steady trend was noticed in the local non-ferrous metals market.

In scraps section, all metals ruled overall steady and were nominally quoted as: copper heavy scraps Rs 107.50, copper utensils Rs 94.00, brass utensils 84.25, brass sheetcuttings Rs 88.50 and aluminium utensils Rs 62 a kg respectively. Virgin metals were quoted as: copper wirebars Rs 117, aluminium ingots Rs 82, zinc slabs Rs 70, lead ingots Rs 40, tin slabs Rs 345 and nickel cathodes Rs 314 a kg respectively.

Bullion: A subdued-to-steady trend was noticed in the local bullion market. Silver ruled mixed while gold ruled overall steady.

In white metals, silver .999 firmed up by Rs 20 at Rs 8,300 on firm overseas advices while raw silver .916 eased further by Rs 15 at Rs 8,165 a kg respectively.

In yellow metals, both standard and 22 carat gold ruled overall steady and were nominally quoted at Rs 3950 and Rs 3650 per 10 gram respectively. Overseas advices also indicated steady trend. Gold biscuit prices also ruled overall steady at Rs 46,400 per piece of gold bar on dull movements.