On increased offerings of new summer moong crop coupled with slack demand from dal millers, prices slumped by Rs 50 at Rs 2000 a quintal and inferior masoor slided down by Rs 40 at Rs 1425 a quintal due to slack demand during summer. Arrival of gram was reported about 80-90 lorries but demand from dal millers remained sluggish. Arhar prices held steady at its previous close of Rs 1200 a quintal.

Due to slack demand from despatchers as well as flour millers, wheat dara slipped by Rs 3-5 at Rs 520-527 a quintal. Production of wheat was likely to be 665 lakh tonnes as against earlier projections of 693 lakh tonnes, but this year, import from Australia was about 15 lakh tonnes and opening stock of wheat this season was reported about 100 lakh tonnes. Therefore, traders demand in wheat remained dull. Demand in rice permal was reported good from Maharashtra.

Sugar improves

On strong demand of8,000-10,000 bags of sugar from Punjab and UP buyers, mill delivery sugar prices improved by Rs 5-10 at Rs 1325-1435 a quintal.

Mawana sugar was traded at Rs 1435, Ramala and Bagpat at Rs 1360, Rudra at Rs 1354 and Dhampur at Rs 1375 a quintal. Pak sugar slipped by Rs 10 at Rs 1490-1500 a quintal due to poor offtake. Pak sugar in Mumbai ruled at Rs 1440 and that of Brazil at Rs 1385 a quintal.

On selling pressure, khandsari dust and sulphur dipped by Rs 10-20 at Rs 1350-1420 a quintal. Glawat was quoted at Rs 1275-1325 a quintal.

Mustard oil flares up

Though palmolein in Malaysia dipped by $5 to $695 a tonne but in view of firm dollar in the forex and in the absence of reduction in import duty on edible oils by the Government, mustard, sesame and cottonseed oils recorded a sharp rise of Rs 30-50 a quintal.

Mumbai: Groundnut oil continued to rule firm on a generally buoyant oils and oilseeds market here today.

In the edible section, groundnut oil prices strengthened further onpersistent heavy local demand amidst reduced supply while palmoil eased on modest selling pressure. Groundnuts, however, held fully steady.

Turning to the industrial sector, castor oil and castorseeds hardened on fresh buying from soap manufacturers and in anticipation of renewed export enquiries. Linseed oil rose sharply on hectic buying from the paint industry but linseeds were quiet.

In futures, castorseeds June contract opened better at Rs.1292 from overnight levels of Rs.1291 and later shot up at the close to Rs.1296 on hopes of fresh export enquires. The September contract ended higher at Rs.1360 from Rs.1353.

Groundnut oil jumped to Rs.429 from Monday's finish of Rs.425 but palmoil softened to Rs.379 from Rs.382. Groundnut ready bold was unchanged at Rs.1980.

Castoroil commercial firmed up to Rs.288 from Rs.286 and castorseed ready Madras ended steeply higher at Rs.1286 from Rs.1277. Linseed oil spurted to Rs.390 from Rs.382 while linseed ready bold was quietly steady at Rs 1400.

Blackpepper nosedives

Black pepper 12 No. on the Delhi market, nose-dived by Rs 1,000 at Rs 25,000 a quintal on weak Cochin advices coupled with slack demand from local as well as upcountry buyers. Cloves, cinnamon and mace revealed an easy tendency on improved supply while on firm Rajasthan and MP advices, superior poppyseed flared up by Rs 500 at Rs 18,000 a quintal.

Among dry fruits, superior Indian kishmish of Maharashtra scaled a new high of Rs 7000, showing a sharp spurt of Rs 800 per 40 kgs. as grapes crop this year was reported poor. Good quality fig tumbled down by Rs 1000 at Rs 6000 per 40 kgs due to slack demand during summer.

Silver improves

Divergent conditions were noticed on the Delhi bullion market on Tuesday.

New York silver future showed signs of improvement at 530 cents an ounce coupled with inflow of about 5000 kgs imported silver on Monday, spot silver .999 dipped by Rs 15 at Rs 7700 a kg as demand from jewellers remained normal. On Saturday, it was priced at Rs 7670 akg. Silver weekly delivery, however, improved by Rs 5 at Rs 7705 a kg on speculative buying. Silver coins remained unchanged at Rs 10300-10500 per 100 pieces.

Gold in London showed a mild loss at $299.10 an ounce and on inflow of about 1000 kgs. of imported gold, gold biscuit and standard mint gold, despite normal demand from jewellers, dipped by Rs 15-20 at Rs 4250 and Rs 4260 per 10 gram respectively. Gold sovereign held steady at Rs 3500-3525 per 8 gram.

Mumbai: In divergent trends, silver lost moderate ground on increased arrivals and lack of demand and gold edged up further on fresh seasonal demand on the Mumbai bullion market on Tuesday.

Silver (.999 fineness) and tenderable gold fell back by Rs 20 each to Rs 7730 and Rs 7735 respectively. Raw silver was down by Rs 5 to Rs 7620.

Standard gold improved further by Rs 5 to Rs 4185 and 22-carat gold was nominally placed up at Rs 3870 from yesterday's close of Rs 3865. Ten-tola gold bar (.999 purity), however, was well maintained at Rs 49,100.