Japan approves aid for Mongolia: Japan has approved a 1.4 billion yen ($10.4 million) aid package to help develop agriculture and infrastructure in Mongolia, the Japanese embassy said on Friday. More than one billion yen would be used to improve weather forecasting, communications and air navigation, an official press release said. Another 400 million yen would be used to buy farm machinery to help boost food production in the largely pastoral North Asian nation, it said. Japan, the largest donor country to Mongolia, gave grant aid totalling 4.9 billion yen to Ulan Bator last year.

Turkey buys French barley: Turkey this week bought 20,000 tonnes of French malting barley for May-June shipment, European grain traders said. Turkey bought 10,000tonnes of spring barley of the Nevada variety at between $115 and $116 per tonne and a further 10,000 tonnes of the Plaisant variety for slightly under $110 per tonne. All prices included cost and freight. Turkey buys between 50,000 tonnes and 60,000 tonnes of malting barley from France each year.

Cardamom prices hit the roof: Cardamom prices hit the roof at the Delhi auctions realising an average price of Rs 526.78 at the may one auctions, while the general price rise tendency continued in view of season-ending at almost all centres. Delhi, where cardamom auctions begun this season (August 1997-July 1996) from December, witnessed a heavy demand for the commodity leading to good realisation. Quality was also on par with the prices, reports from licences auctioneers said. The other non-traditional auction centre at Mumbai also witnessed a sharp demand with the average price realisation being Rs 373.65. While 6.5 tonnes were sold at Delhi, a little over one tonne was sold in mumbai. The overall allIndia average price realisation till may two was Rs 262.80 a kg against Rs 259.53 till april 28. However, prices at the same time last year was Rs 387.17 a kg. The price decline this season could be directly attributed to the rise in offerings which was 3546 tonnes against 2827 tonnes last season. Of these, 3113 tonnes were sold at kerala auction centres. Once again Vandanmettu auction centre fetched the top price among traditional centres with the average price realisation being Rs 352.89, which was higher than Rs 330.78 fetched at the same time last season.

Pepper prices rise: Black pepper prices rose sharply on the International Commodity Exchange here on renewed demand for futures from exporters, dealers said."There was fresh demand for futures contracts and arrivals were restricted," they said.In today's trading, august contracts were quoted higher at Rs 22,675 a quintal against Rs 22,550. July contracts closed at Rs 22,000 against Rs 21,875, june at Rs 21,250 against Rs 21,100 and may at Rs20,275 against Rs 20,400. Spot trading saw sharp rise in prices with garbled pepper moving to Rs 20,500 against Rs 19,900 and ungarbled to Rs 18,800/19,800 against Rs 18,200/19,200.

Tocom palladium ends up: Yen-based palladium futures ended limit-up for the fourth consecutive day on Friday amid growing jitters over Russian supplies, while gold futures rose after news that an Indonesian gold miner had halted shipments due to civil unrest, traders said. Platinum and silver also closed firmer,led by gains in palladium and gold, they said. All palladium contracts, except for benchmark April, ended up by their daily limit of 60 yen per gram. Benchmark April ended up 49 yen at 1,182 yen, hitting are cord high for the benchmark contract.

Oil firm to evacuate staff: French oil group Total said on Friday it had hired a charter plane to evacuate the families of its expatriate personnel from Jakarta after three days of unrest in the Indonesian capital. "We have 30 expatriates in Jakarta with theirfamilies, a special plane is taking off from Jakarta this afternoon to Singapore, to evacuate those who wish, only the women and children for the moment," a Total spokesman said. He said Total also had expatriate teams near its Kalimantan offshore fields, but was not considering pulling them out for the moment as the situation there was much calmer. He said they could leave at any time if necessary. A spokesman for French bank Societe Generale said his firm had four expatriate staff in Jakarta, and had been leaving them to decide whether to open their office or not. "But we are seriously considering closing," he added. A BNP spokesman said the bank was evacuating three executives and their families, who were leaving today for Singapore. "Banking activities have all been shut down until further notice," he said.

Simex Brent firm: Brent crude futures in Asia rose late on Friday in very thin trading. July Brent on Simex settled 12 cents per barrel higher at $14.84, but only one lot was traded. The othercontract months on Simex were untraded. June Brent on IPE closed 17 cents firmer at $14.72 in London on Thursday. June Nymex crude on the after hours Access trading was upsix cents at $15.14 late in Asia, after it closed 13 cents stronger at $15.08 in New York.

NWE oil makes little move: NWE oil products showed little movement on Friday, although a bearish tone continued to circulate in the market. Fuel oil barges traded twice early, with Rotterdam high sulphur changing hands at $69.50 and $69.00 a tonne. Those levels remained consistent with prices seen late Thursday. "There are no fuel oil offers at the present time (in Rotterdam)," one trader said. Despite the apparent lack of supply, current demand did not appear strong enough to trigger a price hike, traders said. Gas oil trade began quietly. Players turned their attention to the futures market for near-term direction signals. At 0834 GMT on the IPE, June gas oil sat at $133.00 a tonne, up 25 cents on the day.

Tocom may list kerosene:Tocom said it might list kerosene futures after introducing a gasoline futures contract sometime next spring. The exchange is planning to hold a committee meeting in Juneto discuss the details of the kerosene futures contract, but specifications for the kerosene contract are expected to be somewhat similar to those for gasoline futures, a Tocom official said. The planned gasoline contract, one lot of which is equivalent to 10 kilolitres, would allow participants to carry out physical delivery by truck as well as by barge. Tocom currently trades yen-based futures contracts in gold, silver, platinum, palladium, aluminium, rubber and textiles.

Prices of boric acid move up: Prices of boric acid technical rose by chemical market here while menthol bold crystal slid sharply. Boric acid technical (50 kg) increased by Rs 50 from previous close of Rs 2100-2250 to settle at Rs 2150-2250. Menthol bold crystal dropped by Rs 10 (per kg) from previous Rs 445. Tartaric acid also quoted higher Rs 440 (1 kg). Thevolume of business was small. Following were today's quotations in Rs: ammonia bicarb (25kg) 245-255 ammonium chloride (50 kg) 340-360 acetic acid (1kg) 28.50 boric acid technical (50 kg) 2150-2250 borex granular (50 kg) 1500-1525 caustic soda flake (50 kg) 650-670 citric acid (50 kg) (China) 3350 citric acid (50 kg) (Bombay Dyeing) 3800 camphor slab (1 kg) 140 comphor powder (1 kg).

(Compiled from agencies)