Following raids on dal mills in Ghaziabad, Hapur, Bareilly etc. coupled with fixation of selling price, quality arhar and its dal tumbled down by Rs 100-150 at Rs 2600-4000 a quintal. On inflow of new crop arhar in UP and Punjab was reported about 500 bags and prices plummeted to Rs 2150-2200 from Rs 2250-2300 a quintal.

On arrival of about 80 lorries of gram from Rajasthan and Haryana coupled with raids against hoarders and profiteers, gram and its dal slided down from Rs 1480-1680 to Rs 1445-1650 a quintal. Besin Rajdhani dipped by Rs 20 at Rs 1450 per 70 kgs. bag.

Among cereals, wheat prices held steady on good demand from flour millers. Demand in maida and suji was reported good from Bihar, West Bengal and South buyers. Rice permal slipped by Rs 10 a quintal due to slack demand from exporters.Sugar dips

Mill delivery sugar prices dipped by Rs 5 to Rs 30 a quintal on selling pressure frommillers after Gangasnan. Scattered deals in mill delivery sugar Bagpat were settled at Rs 1400, Bulandshahr at Rs 1375, Nadhai at Rs 1360, Mirganj at Rs 1400, Modi at Rs 1430 and tax-paid Dhampur at Rs 1460 a quintal.

Mustard laha shoots up

Following untimely rains in Andhra, including western and southern India, mustard and its oil showed a firm tendency. Mustard laha shot up by Rs 100 at Rs 2200-2400 a quintal on hectic buying by local as well as Chandigarh operators.

Groundnut climbed up by Rs 50 a quintal on firm Mumbai and Gujarat advices. Soyabean oil in Indore flared up by Rs 50 at Rs 3350 a quintal, consequently, sesame and cottonseed oils here firmed up by Rs 50 a quintal.Among industrial oils, linseed oil drifted lower by Rs 100 a quintal due to weak demand from Kanpur buyers.

Mumbai: Groundnut and linseed oil flared up on a firm oilseeds market on Thursday. Castorseeds futures ruled better.

Among edible oils, groundnut oil shot up sharply due to poor arrivals from theproducing regions. Imported palm oil also firmed up owing to good local offtake.

In the industrial sector, linseed oil flared up on fresh inquiries from the paint industry as against slow inflow from upcountry centres. Castorseeds and its oil ruled steady on stray support.

In the futures market, castorseeds December contract opened higher at Rs 1631 and shot up to a high of Rs 1638 on heavy enquiries from exporters. Later, prices reacted modestly on profit-taking and settled at Rs 1633, up by Rs 10 from the previous close of Rs 1623.

Groundnut oil shot up to Rs 460 from Rs 450. Palm oil firmed up to Rs 364 from Rs 362. Linseed oil flared up to Rs 475 from Rs 460. Linseeds ready at Rs 1700, castor oil commercial at Rs 415 and castorseeds ready Madras at Rs 1896 were unaltered from the previous close. Red chillies declineFollowing raids on hoarders and profiteers, red chilles and turmeric slided down by Rs 500 a quintal and cardamom small slipped by Rs 5-10 a kg,. due to slack demand.

In the absence offresh import, betelnut recorded a sharp rise of Rs 400-1000 at Rs 10,000-12,400 a quintal. Soanf flared up by Rs 200 a quintal due to poor crop prospects.

Bullion inches up

Both the precious metals, at the Delhi bullion market showed signs of improvement on Thursday.

New York silver future improved slightly to 497 cents from 496 cents an ounce, consequently, spot silver .999 fineness improved by Rs 10 at Rs 7450 a kg. while silver weekly delivery remained unchanged at Rs 7465 a kg. due to lack of speculative buying.

Silver coins also held steady at Rs 10,800-10,900 per 100 pieces.Gold on the overseas markets improved to $291 from $290.10 an ounce, consequently, gold biscuit and standard mint gold improved slightly by Rs 5 at Rs 4265 and Rs 4275 per 10 gram, respectively and gold sovereign held steady at Rs 3700-3750 per 8 gram.

Mumbai:Divergent trends were witnessed at the bullion market here today.Silver declined marginally due to poor industrial demand coupled with increased arrivals whilegold firmed up on fresh local buying at lower levels. The price trends were partially influenced by overseas advices.

Silver ready .999 fineness eased to Rs 7460 from Rs 7465. Raw silver .916 fineness declined to Rs 7340 from Rs 7360. Tenderable silver dipped to Rs 7465 from Rs 7470 previously.

Standard gold firmed up to Rs 4275 from Rs 4255. 22-carat gold was nominally quoted higher at Rs 3955 from Rs 3935. Ten-tola gold bar .999 purity improved to Rs 50,000 from the last close of Rs 49,900. Soda ash upThymol firmed up by Rs 3 at Rs 285 per kg. because of poor ready stock and buoyant demand from pharmaceuticals units. Menthol flake, bold and DMO also edged up by Rs 2-3 per kg. Soda ash Tata flared up by Rs 10 at Rs 910 per 75 kgs. bag. as there was no arrivals from Gujarat, Birla, DCW and Punjab and China.

On the other hand, sodium nitrite slumped by Rs 50 at Rs 1250-1300 per 50 kgs. on sluggish sales. Stable bleaching powder prices were quoted mixed.

Nickel plate up

Following buoyantdemand, nickel plate marked up by Rs 2 at Rs 245-287 a kg. Copper wire bar, rod, utensil, mixed scrap and copper wire scrap also firmed up by Rs 1-2 per kg. on poor supplies.

Zinc slab held steady on local demand, whereas under pressure of sales arrivals, tin ingot fell by Rs 3 at Rs 366 per kg.