In the wake of poor crop prospects in Turkey and Iran due to paucity of rains coupled with fall in arrivals from the domestic producing mandies, indigenous kabligram recorded a sharp rise of Rs 100-125 at Rs 2100-2750 a quintal and Mexican kabligram went up from Rs 4100 to Rs 4200 a quintal.

2800 bags of new rajmash chitra arrived in the market, which were traded at Rs 2100 a quintal. Similarly, masoor, moth, arhar, gram, etc.pulses displayed a firm tendency as stockists were not in a mood to off-load their inventories at the present prices.

Among cereals, wheat dara slipped by Rs 2 at Rs 583-598 a quintal as consistent inflow of wheat from the neighbouring states was reported in Delhi mandies. Atta and maida showed a mixed tendency and demand in maida was reported from Maharashtra, MP and Andhra.

Sunflower oil improves
Palmolein in Malaysia edged up by $5 to $295 a tonne, though Indonesia did not hike export cess on raw palm oil. Consequently, on firm Malaysia advices, sunflower oil improved by Rs 20 at Rs 2420 a quintal while mustard oil expeller fell by Rs 20 a quintal due to slack demand from West Bengal and Bihar buyers.

Export of Nepal vanaspati this year is expected to go up by 33 per cent to 1.20 lakh tonnes, hence demand in vanaspati from eastern Indian buyers remained dull.

Sugar rises
On higher prices quoted by the millers, mill delivery sugar prices here went up from Rs 1500-1635 to Rs 1525-1660 a quintal and spot sugar prices also firmed up by Rs 25-30 at Rs 1675-1780 a quintal.

In the expectations of export of one lakh tonnes sugar to Pak, further aided the market sentiment. Current month free-sale sugar quota is 9 lakh tonnes as against 8.50 lakh tonnes for August, but demand in sugar from local as well as upcountry speculators was reported strong.

In sympathy with sugar, gur chaku went up by Rs 25 at Rs 1225-1250 a quintal.

Soanf flares up
Though Unjha mandi remained closed on Friday on account of "Ganesh Chaturthi", yet zeera Ganesh, on hectic speculative buying and selling on paper, pushed up zeera Ganesh prices by Rs 400 at Rs 3250 per 20 kg beating all previous records, consequently, zeera, at the Delhi spices market scaled a new high at Rs 15,000-17,000, registering an alarming rise of Rs 1000-1500 per quintal. It is pertinent to mention here that zeera in March was priced at Rs 6300-8800 and in early August, at Rs 8900-11,000 a quintal.

Soanf flared up by Rs 200-300 at Rs 3600-4800 a quintal in tandem with zeera. On firm producing mandies advices, turmeric Nizamabad gatha, red chillies Guntur packing and cardamom small revealed a firm tendency.

Among dry fruits, quality, dry dates red and Rangkat shot up by Rs 300-500 at Rs 4800-5000 a quintal amidst tight supply position from Pakistan while almond California tumbled down by Rs 100 per 40 kg due to buyers resistance at higher level.

Bullion gains
Both the precious metals, at the Dlehi bullion market recorded gains on Friday on overseas advices.

New York silver future moved up from 491 cents to 497 cents an ounce and inflow of imported silver was merely 3000 kg, consequently, spot silver .999 fineness firmed up by Rs 35 at Rs 7870 a kg on strong demand from local as well as upcountry buyers. Silver weekly delivery also moved up to Rs 7880 a kg on bear covering.

Silver coins, however, remained unchanged.
Gold in London moved up from $274.50 to $277.75 an ounce coupled with restricted inflow of imported gold, gold biscuit and standard mint gold here, flared up by Rs 35 at Rs 4540 and Rs 4550 per 10 gram, respectively.Gold sovereign also ruled firm at Rs 3775-3800 per 8 gram.

Boric acid up
In a largely steady chemical market, boric acid technical Morarji shot up by Rs 100 to Rs 2400 per 50 kg. Tight supplies coupled with increased industrial demand accounted for the sharp rise.

In menthol products, steady prices reports from producing centres of UP ruled over the market. Mentha oil, flake and bold improved by Rs 2-6 per kg. DMO held firm.

Potato declines
Potato prices fell to Rs 10-50 per 80 kg due to excess inflow including below average quality arrivals of around 14 trucks from Karnataka. Total inflow was seen at about 173 trucks. Good quality potato of Shimla fell by Rs 50 at Rs 500 while inferior Karnataka variety sold at Rs 300-350.

In tomato also, arrivals were in excess at about 51 trucks and prices fell Rs 15-50 at Rs 120-170 per box.