US West Coast crude unchanged: US West Coast crude oil differentials were UN changed again on Tuesday amid a continuing dearth of new deals. Dealers said business continued to be dampened by the American Petroleum Institute 's annual meeting which many players were attending in San Francisco. West Coast refinery buyers were said to be busy with calculations aimed at avoiding large year-end inventories which could result in correspondingly large tax liabilities. Dealers said it might take some time for refineries to work out their remaining supply requirements for this year and that this could further dampen trading until the end of the week. The benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude stageda partial recovery on Tuesday from Monday's steep decline. The discount of Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude for delivery on the West Coast remains at $1.37 a barrel, so the notional spot price for ANS pic ked up to $12.09/12.25 a barrel, a rise of some 15 cents from Monday.

Euro cotton markets remain light: Cotlook, a Liverpool-based cotton in formation company, reported on Tuesday that trading activity on most European raw cotton markets remained light, as markets awaited news of Washington's November crop report, and supply and demand figures. In the event, USDA's forecast of US production was reduced only modestly from the previous month, and thus seemed unlikely to prompt a change in price sentiment. Some mill buying interest was in evidence in Italy for central Asia styles, but the volume of new business appeared moderate, and the underlying mood of spinners remained cautious. The overall Cotlook index a rose by 0.05 cents per pound to 57.55 C/lb.

`Chemtech Worldexpo' from Nov 18: Unionminister for chemicals and fertilisers Surjit Singh Barnala would inaugurate `Chemtech Worldexpo 98' - India's largest international trade fair on process engineering industry here on November 18. Union minister for petroleum and natural gas K Ramamurthy would be the chief guest on this occasion. The event would be sponsored by Chemtech Foundation and co-sponsored by the union ministry of chemicals and fertilisers and supported by two international and 10 Indian associations. The fair would provide greater thrust to the state-of-the-art technology and a wide range of latest equipment and instruments for chemicals and petrochemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, fertilisers, oil and gas, power and energy as well as environment management sectors.

Cardamom prices continue to surge: Cardamom prices continued to surge at various auctions across the country on increased demand and fears of low crop breaching the Rs 500-a-kg-mark for the first time at Bodinayakanur. All India average realisation prices forcardamom increased to Rs 413.91 a kg during the week-ended October 24 as against Rs 407.91 a kg the previous week. Last year, the prices had dipped during the same period to Rs 285.97 from kg to Rs 295.12 a kg. Cardamom production is likely to be around 6,900-7,000 tonnes this crop year (August 1998-July 1999) against 7,650 tonnes last year. In addition, the crop in Guatemala, India's main competitor in the global market, is also likely to fall to 12,000 tonnes from 15,000 tonnes due to pest attack. Price realisation of the auctions in centres in Kerala continued to be better than that of the non-traditional centre like Mumbai.

Sikkim wants more sugar, kerosene: Sikkim has asked the centre to increase the existing monthly quota of sugar to 250 metric tonnes and kerosene oil to 1200 kilolitres. State chief secretary Sonam Wangdi made the request during the recent meeting of chief secretaries at New Delhi on November 7 and said that the existing monthly quota of 174 MT of sugar and 826 KL of keroseneoil "was not commensurate to meet the rising population", an official release said here on Wednesday. Wangdi also pointed out about the "poor" quality of rice supplied by the Food Corporation of India and requested for supply of iodised salt, the sources said. The New Delhi meeting, chaired by cabinet secretary Prabhat Kumar, discussed the situation arising out of the rise in prices of essential commodities.

Onion, potato declared essential commodities: Bihar government has declared onion and potato as essential commodities in its bid to evolve a "fool-proof" measure to check "black marketing and illegal hoarding" of the commodities, food and civil supplies minister Purnamasi Ram has said. The district authorities have been asked to launch anti-hoarding drive to prevent scarcity essential commodities, Ram told newsmen here on Wednesday. Punitive action under provisions of the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) would be taken if the traders indulged in hoarding and blackmarketing. The minister claimedthat the state had sufficient stocks of onion, potato, salt and edible oils.

Tokyo corn futures higher: Tokyo corn futures ended higher amid active trade on Wednesday as a surge in the Chicago futures market overnight sparked buying and position building by funds as well as individual investors, traders said. They said investors were expected to keep an eye on fluctuations in the dollar/yen rate now that the US agriculture department's crop production figures were out. Prices ranged from 120 to 130 yen per tonne higher. Benchmark November gained 130 to 13,770 yen, while nearby January closed 130 higher at 13,500 yen. Estimated volume was a whopping 62,408 lots. The USDA raised its 1998 corn production forecast to 9.836billion bushels from its October projection of 9.743 billion. CBOT corn up: Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade ended moderately higher Tuesday, following a rally late in the session on a spurt of fund buying, traders said. Wheat ended the day unchanged with little helpto be found in a government production report. The US Department of Agriculture's November world agricultural supply & demand estimates report, released before the session, had little in it to help corn and wheat futures, traders said. The USDA raised its estimate for 1998/99 US corn production and ending stocks, and left most wheat data unchanged from the previous month. Early in the session, corn rallied in line with soybeans, then faded as a major commodity fund sold heavily, said Mark Cermak broker with O'Connor & Co on the CBOT floor.

Liffe wheat higher: Liffe wheat futures closed between 5 and 15 pence higher Tuesday, buoyed a slight fall in the value of the pound, said brokers. March wheat, which made the biggest gains, closed 15 pence up on the day at GBP82.15 a metric ton. Brokers reported reasonably heavy trade, with 580 lots changing hands. "Old-crop traded in very narrow range but good two way trade noted," said ADM Investor Services International Ltd in their daily market report.Brokers said the slight rise in prices was in response to the fall in the value of the pound. At 1710 GMT sterling traded at DEM2.7980, down from DEM2.80 33 traded late in London Monday. A fall in the value of the pound makes UK goods less expensive to foreign buyers, hence UK shippers can increase prices without losing competitiveness on export markets.