Silver Declines, Oils Stage Rally

Silver prices declined steeply and gold held steady on the local bullion market during the week ended February 14.

Raw silver of .999 fineness, after a weak start at Rs 8815, declined further steeply to Rs 8,670 by Thursday on heavy selling pressure at higher levels coupled with weak overseas advices.

Later, on revival of buying and poor arrivals, it regained strength and closed at Rs 8,830, still showing a sharp setback of Rs 160 from the last week's mark of Rs 8,990.

Raw silver of .916 fineness and tenderable silver also moved in a similar way and closed at Rs 8715 and Rs 8835 respectively from the previous week's mark of Rs 8865 and Rs 8995.

Standard gold opened better at Rs 4010 on good local buying and firm London advices.

Later, due to fall in the overseas prices and poor local buying, fell to close at Rs 3995, showing no change from the last week's level. 22-carat gold was nominally quoted unchanged from the previous week's level of Rs 3695.

The 10-tola gold bar of .999 purity also showed no change from the last week's mark of Rs 46,700.

Oils & oilseeds: Prices of groundnut oil, palm oil, linseed oil and castorseeds futures rallied steeply on the local oils and oilseeds market during the week.

In the edible oil section, groundnut oil prices started better at Rs 363 and rallied sharply towards the fag on poor arrivals from producing centres coupled with firm Gujarat advices to close at Rs 377, showing a remarkable rally of Rs 16 over the last week's close of Rs 361.

Meanwhile, groundnut bold rose Rs 10 to Rs 1950 from Rs 1940.

In the non-edible oil section, prices of linseed oil resumed steady at a Rs 320 and rose sharply to Rs 330 on heavy paint industries demand.

It ,thus showed a good gain of Rs 10 over the last week's close of Rs 320.

However, linseed bold held steady at Rs 1,300.

Castor oil commercial improved to Rs 279 from the last week's level of Rs 278.50 and castorseed Madras rose by Rs 2. It closed at Rs 1,243 from the last weeks close of Rs 1241.

In the futures section, castorseed March contract opened higher at Rs 1222.

Increased exporters' demand saw the commodity rally to close at Rs 1226, showing a gain of Rs 13 from the last week's close of Rs 1213.

Meanwhile, the June contract went up steeply by Rs 33.50 to close at Rs 1271.50 from Rs 1238.