Indian cotton prices gained on Monday on steady demand by state-run agencies, traders said. Shortage of supplies also helped prices to rise, they said. In Gujarat, longstaple sankar-4 cotton rose Rs 500 to Rs 18,000/19,000 per candy (355.56 kg) for average grade and Rs 200 to Rs 19,500/20,500 for superior grade. In Punjab, Bengal-deshi cotton variety price held steady at Rs 1,520/1,570 per maund (37.32 kg). Saw-ginned cotton ended Rs 10 lower at Rs 1,695/1,810 per maund.

IPE Brent may break $9

IPE Brent crude oil futures are expected to continue to trade lower on Monday with overall sentiment negative and technical supports ahead of $9 on Brent looking fragile, analysts said. "People are now convinced that the market is heading lower again," Steve Kwan Head of Technical Analysis at Standard and Poor's MMS said. "If the market was really bottoming there shouldn't have been such an aggressive pull-back in such a short space of time," Kwan said. He said the $9.90 Februarycontract low on Brent was unlikely to offer much support and he pegged next support around $9.33 ahead of the $9 barrier. This support was based on an equality swing, with the $2.30 decline from $12.20 on November 23 to $9.90, the February contract low hit on December 10 being applied to last Wednesday's $11.63 peak. Analysts said last Thursday's aggressive sell-off had completely retraced the reactive rally staged over last Tuesday and Wednesday. They added that Friday's close below $10 on Brent was extremely negative.

SIMEX Brent untraded

Brent crude futures in Asia were untraded and rangebound on Monday, hovering just above 12-year lows after US and Britain ended air strikes against Iraq over the weekend. January Brent on SIMEX was quoted at $9.85/$10.10 per barrel. January was settled at $9.98, unchanged from London's close on Friday. January Brent on IPE fell 11 cents to $9.98, as the spectre of a supply glut loomed large even as a third wave of US bombing hit Iraq. The US-Britain air strikeshalted on Saturday, after four days of attack. January WTI in the after hours ACCESS were also lower, by nine cents to $10.86. The contract had closed eight cents down at $10.95 in New York on Friday.

Iraq crude flows normal

Iraqi oil exports were running normally on Monday after four days of US-led military bombardment ended at the weekend, an industry official familiar with monitoring under a U.N. oil-for-food sales programme said. Liftings from the country's Gulf Port of Mina al-Bakr had proved a little slow during the hostilities but no shipments had been cancelled. Pipeline deliveries to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan were also running to plan on Monday. While main export infrastructure at first sight seemed unaffected problems could still ripple out from the attack on Iraq's Basrah refinery, near Mina al-Bakr. "The pipelines seem alright because cargoes are still loading but there could still be disruptions from, say, power shortages or even something minor like a lack ofdrinking water," the official said. It was not known how much damage was sustained in and around the Basrah refinery, which the U.S. Said was targeted to stop smuggling of petroleum products. Iraq recently has pumped about 2.5 million barrels a day of crude, exporting 1.8 million bpd under the UN humanitarian exchange and refining the remainder. No petroleum products are exported under the UN deal. Exports under the UN-monitored oil-for-food exchange are certified at al-Bakr on behalf of the United Nations by Dutch firm Saybolt whose staff remained at their posts throughout the attacks.

Asian fuel oil steady

Singapore fuel oil prices were steady on Monday with the market getting good support from local buying, traders said. The Singapore trader, which had consistently bought spot cargoes over the last two months, kept up its buying binge by purchasing a 20,000-tonne cargo at $65.00 per tonne for January 16-20 lifting. The trade was at least $1.00 higher than Friday's $64.00 deal. Traders attributedthe market's renewed strength to China's healthy appetite. Traders said the cargoes snapped up by two related local traders were meant to fulfill China's requirements. Traders said China was expected to step up its purchases prior to the Lunar New Year in mid-February when markets there are closed for about two weeks. Initial fears of arbitrage cargoes swamping the market have been wiped out, traders said.

Sinopec, CNPC seek crude

China National Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) are pressing to take full control of crude and gas oil imports and exports in 1999, Chinese oil industry sources said on Monday. The trading activities would be handled by their trading arms, China International United Petrochemical Corp (Unipec) and China United Oil Corp (Chinaoil), the sources said. Under the plan, state trader Sinochem could end up with no trading rights over crude and gas oil but maintain its rights to import and export the remaining oil products. However, Sinochemsources said the issue was not yet settled with the central government. "These (ideas) are their own thinking," a Sinochem source said of the moves by Sinopec and CNPC. "Even if it happens, the government has to work out some arrangement for Sinochem, such as restructuring, or give us some domestic trading rights, or a share of the import/export quotas," he said. Sinochem, the monopoly trader before 1992, however, still holds 30 per cent equity in both Unipec and Chinaoil. The industry sources said the management of import quotas for both crude and products would also be centralised. The State Economic Trade Commission(SETC) headed by former Sinopec president Sheng Huaren would be in charge of deciding the volume of imports, sources said.

Plastic prices drift

Prices of low denstiy (LD) and other raw plastic drifted on the local plastic market today due to reduced industrial demand coupled with weak overseas market trends. Traders said arrivals and offtake remained at a low ebb and so was the volumeof business. LD No 40 and LD No 400 quoted lower at Rs 46 and Rs 48 per kg respectively due to poor demand from manufacturing units. LD No 1035 also lacked buying support and shed 50 paisa at Rs 46 per kg.

Sugar mill gate prices mixed

Mill gate prices of sugar closed on a mixed note on Monday with titabi and amroha higher on increased demand while sakoti and smali eased marginally on slack demand. However, Delhi wholesale market remained unchanged for want of support. In the mill gate section, titabi and amroha rose by Rs 10 each to conclude at Rs 1390 and Rs 1340 per quintal respectively. On the other hand, sakoti and smali dropped to Rs 1333 and Rs 1460 from the last level of Rs 1335 and Rs 1462 per quintal respectively.

Frost damages Dutch sugar beet crop

Frost has damaged the Dutch sugar beet crop, which is expected to yield less than 847,000 tonnes of white sugar, an official with the country's biggest producer Suiker Unie said on Monday. Last year the Netherlands produced 1.02million tonnes. "We have had frost since November 20 and at that time we still had 25 per cent of the crop to harvest, which is much more than average," Agricultural Director Alfons Calon said. Heavy rains delayed the campaign during what is expected to be recorded as the wettest year on record. A few thousand hectres of beet remained to be harvested, but Calon said probably not all of it would be processed. "We may have to stop processing because we have had too many problems from the frost damage," Calon said. Last week Suiker Unie estimated it would produce 530,000 tonnes of white sugar and rival sugar producer CSM forecast 317,000 tonnes, he added.