Urad crashes by Rs 200 a quintal

Lack of demand seen as trigger

Urad saw a downward circuit in spot Mumbai pulse market and crashed by Rs 200 on Wednesday to close at Rs 3,251 per quintal. With this slump, the Burmese urad witnessed a total decline of Rs 500 in the last 5 days. The present decline is mainly attributed to the lack of demand from the stockholders.

"The urad price had gained unexpectedly in the recent past to Rs 3,627 per quintal (May) level due to futures trade on the commodities exchanges. The terminals had forced stockholders to book despite no availability of urad for ready delivery. And the bookings pushed prices to an expected level. The pulses started seeing downward movement when it saw no actual traders coming in for fresh booking, said a Mumbai-based trader.

The market is controlled by big traders who can take it to any direction irrespective of actual demand and supply, the trader added. The arrival continues in the market with the fresh stock of 8,000-9,000 tonnes is expected very soon through the vessel Yaad-e-Mohammed, expected to be harboured very soon at the Mumbai dock.

Apart from that, traders anticipated at least two-three shiploads of urad and other pulses from Myanmar every month. On MCX, Burmese urad for April delivery closed at Rs 3,146 per quintal on Wednesday as against Rs 3,325 per quintal on Tuesday. Similarly, May delivery urad slumped to Rs 3,146 per quintal from Rs 3,325 per quintal on Tuesday. All other contracts for urad recorded similar decline on MCX on Wednesday despite the exchange recorded the highest single-day turnover of Rs 11,732 crore (single-side) on Tuesday.

On NCDEX, urad for April delivery closed at Rs 3304 per quintal as against Rs 3,373 per quintal on Tuesday. Similarly, May delivery urad declined marginally to Rs 3,299 from Rs 3,338 on Tuesday.