Delhi sugar recovers
In an otherwise steady market, Khatoli duty paid of millgate recovered on fresh stockists' buying on the primary sugar market in New Delhi on Thursday. Sugar prices at the wholesale market remained static on some support. Among the mill gate, sugar Khatoli duty paid moved up from Rs 1480 to close at Rs 1490 a quintal on fresh support. Following are Thursday's quotations in Rs per quintal: Sugar ready M-30 1500-1520, S-30 1475-1510, sugar mill delivery M-30 1350-1385, S-30 1340-1365, imported sugar 1480-1490, sulphor bold 1390-1430, mini medium 1350-1400, dust 1335-1350, galawat 1225-1300, cutting 1280-1310, khandsari crusher 1300-1335.

Cotton remains steady
Prices of all select cotton varieties including Maharashtra, remained steady at the South India Cotton Association (Sica) on Thursday. Prices per quintal in Rs: Bengal deshi fine (new crop) (pjb) 4233, Wagad (guj) n q, V-797-new crop (guj) 3740, Jayadhar (ktk) n q, J-34-new crop (pjb) 4608, F-414 (tn) n q, Lra-5166 (tn) n q, H-4 new crop (mp) 5258, LK-29 new crop (ap) 5540, Shankar-6-new crop (guj)5455, MCU-5 new crop (ap) 6580, DCH-32-new crop (ktk) 7199. Group-1 Maharashtra (all new crops): Mech-1 ytl/amt 5343, H-4 ytl/amt 5343, LRA-5166 Nagpur/ytl 5090, NHH-44 ytl/amt 4809, AK.H-4/AK.235 4780, 1007 ytl/amt 4921, AHH-468 ytl/amt 4809. Non-ferrous metals firmIn restricted activity, prices continued to rule steady on the Mumbai non-ferrous metals market on Thursday. Following are prices per kilo with previous rates in brackets: Copper wire bar Rs 110.00 (Rs 110.00), copper heavy scrap Rs 99.00 (Rs 99.00), copper utensils Rs 88.50 (Rs 88.50), brass scrap Rs 78.00 (Rs 78.00), brass sheets cutting Rs 84.00 (Rs 84.00), aluminium ingots Rs 81.25 (Rs 81.25), aluminium Rs 61.00 (Rs 61.00), zinc Rs 74.50 (Rs 74.50), lead Rs 38.50 (Rs 38.50), tin Rs 347.00 (Rs 347.00) and nickel Rs 292.00 (Rs 292.00).

SIMEX Brent quote lower
SIMEX Brent crude futures were quoted lower on Thursday afternoon in Asia, extending the bearish tone from the previous day, traders said. May Brent was bid at $14.15 perbarrel, against no offers at 0710 GMT. The contract had closed 57 cents down at $14.35 on London's IPE overnight. NYMEX May crude on ACCESS, which fell 78 cents overnight, was last traded at $15.98, down five cents. US department of energy data a smaller draw in gasoline stocks than had been reported by the API, prompting the weaker tone to New York and London overnight. Price in Asia failed to find any bullish confidence in comments from Venezuelan energy and mines minister Ali Rodriguez.

Australian wool exports fall
Australian wool exports fell again in February, by 1 per cent in volume to 47,458 tonnes and by 27.8 per cent in value terms to A$209 million from the same month a year before, figures issued by the Woolmark Co show. The volume of wool exports for the eight months to the end of February dropped 18.7 per cent to 358,796 tonnes and the export value slumped 36.7 per cent to A$1.69 billion. The value of exports to China rose by 46.1 per cent to A$67.09 million from February 1998.