Trading activity on the Karachi wholesale markets was relatively slow last week as retailers stayed on the sidelines most of the time anticipating a fall in the prices.
The ready offtake, by both wholesaler and general consumer, was on the lower side of the weekly intake, notably on essential counters owing to higher prices quoted by the dealers.
But the prices of most essential items stayed firm around their previous levels followed by the reports of a considerable fall in arrivals from the upcountry market, dealers said.
The holding back of stocks, notably on essential counters in sympathy to the prevailing sugar crisis was a general tendency of commercial traders to keep the supply line at the retailers end a bit dry, they said.
Floor brokers said that the prices of essential items may not fall from their current high levels until sanity returned to sugar market followed by the release of new crop stock.
According to market sources, sugar prices had modestly eased from their all-time high levels after the government took some corrective steps. But these still were pretty high.
Fresh import consignments from India were trickling down both via overland and sea routes but the quantity was too small to ease the supply situation and pull the prices sharply down, they added.
If the government managed to restore sanity on the sugar front through corrective steps during the next couple of sessions, it may leave a sympathetic stabilizing impact on other counters, as well.
The commodity may not be in that short supply as was being projected therefore, the stockholders should be forced to bring it in the open market for easing the shortage.
Among major industrial raw materials, guarseeds were quoted further up as arrivals from the Sindh and upcountry markets remained slow and so were others, including the oilseeds.
As the mid-week trading activity on some essential counters picked up, the commercial houses lowered their selling prices followed by the reports of larger arrivals, both from the upcountry markets and foreign sources, dealers said.
The market decline was led by the pulses sector on active selling by the leading importers and wholesaler. Prices of some varieties were marked sharply lower under the lead of masoor and masoor dal, which suffered fall ranging from Rs50 to 150 per bag.
These were followed by peas, moong and beetle, which were marked down by Rs150 to 200 per bag as some importers tried to get out of the long position.
Tuver, gram dal and gram whole and urad types were, however, traded around their previous levels, partly owing to slack demand and partly to comfortable ready positions - thanks to steady arrivals from the upcountry markets.
Dealers said that large imports of some types of pluses were chief factors behind the sell-off. The commodity was being offered at much lower rates than elsewhere.
Other essential items including wheat and rice were traded around their previous levels but sugar remained an exception whose prices remained on the higher side all around, they added.
IRRI broken was an exception which was marked down by Rs10 on slack export demand. But IRRI-6 was quoted higher by Rs5. Basmati, both sela and kernal types were also held unchanged in the absence of fresh export orders.
Cereals lacked the normal trading interest and were held unchanged barring maize which was marked down by Rs10 to 15 on the selling prompted by the reports of fresh crop arrivals. Bajra and barley were quoted unchanged.
Among industrial raw materials, guarseed remained under pressure on the reports of short crop and rose by Rs50 to 75 per bag amid slow trading.
Oilseed sector showed weak trend under the lead of rapeseed followed by the reports of new crop arrivals from Sindh markets and weak oil and cake markets. All other types were quoted lower on active selling.
Castorseed pursued them on reports of falling exports and fell by Rs25 but til resisted fresh decline and was held unchanged at previous levels.
Cottonseed on the other hand showed firm trend as it was in short supply and was firmly held at previous levels amid slow trading. Arrivals from the ginneries were on the lower side which kept the prices higher.
Oilcakes showed divergent trend amid alternate bouts of buying and selling, although rapeseed cakes ruled easy.—M.A.
Trading activity on the Karachi wholesale markets was relatively slow last week as retailers stayed on the sidelines most of the time anticipating a fall in the prices.
