Upcoming festival demand may support agri prices: Sharekhan

Sharekhan has come out with its report on agricultural commodities. According to the research firm, upcoming festival demand is expected to support agri prices. Buy wheat, chilli, turmeric and cardamom on dips and sell sugar while others are likely to remain range-bound, says Sharekhan.

Grain
Wheat

Steady tone witnessed in the markets.

The government procurement is likely to start in the first week of April.

Trade participants revealed that PEC received the highest bid at $307 per tonne from Switzerland-based trader Glencore for its 150,000 tonne wheat export tender. State Trading Corporation (STC) on Wednesday received the highest bid at $306 per tonne from global trader Toepfer in its latest wheat export tender. The state-run trading firms such as PEC, STC and MMTC have been issuing export tenders to ship out wheat from overflowing government warehouses since July 2012.

Spot wheat quoted down in Delhi markets on Thursday. Meanwhile, it remained steady in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh markets. At Lawrence Road market of Delhi, wheat mill quality traded at Rs1,585 a quintal.

According to Lanworth, the US wheat production is likely to decline to 1.910 billion bushels from 1.932 billion. The wheat harvest in Russia and Ukraine were left unchanged at 49.9 million tonne (MT) and 23.0 million respectively. On the other hand, the forecast for Kazakhstan wheat production was lowered to 15.5MT from 16.5 million.

Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry will raise the cap on wheat exports in the July 2012 to June 2013 season to 7.0MT from 6.5MT.

Iraq issued a tender to buy a minimum of 50,000 tonne of wheat from the USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Germany,  a statement from the trade ministry said. The tender is

open until March 24 and offers must be valid until March 28, the statement said.

Bangladesh's state-run grains buyer has issued an international tender to import 50,000 of wheat to boost reserves, a procurement official said. The deadline to submit offers is March 25, with validity up to April 7, and the wheat is to be shipped in 40 days of signing the contract.

A flour mill in Oman has purchased about 10,000 tonne of Indian-origin milling wheat in a private tender for 20,000 tonne, which closed last week.

A Libya state-run grains buying agency in Benghazi has purchased 50,000 tonne of wheat thought to be of Hungarian origin in an international tender to purchase around 30,000 tonne of wheat, which closed last week.

Algeria's state-run grains agency OAIC has bought 350,000 tonne of optional-origin milling wheat in a tender at around $330 per tonne, which included cost and freight.

Outlook: Steady movement likely to be witnessed in the coming days.

Maize

Flat tone witnessed in the markets.

Maize traded easy in Nizamabad, while it was steady to firm in other markets amid better demand. Maize quoted at Rs1,315-1,320 per quintal in Nizamabad, Rs1,400 per quintal in Davangere, Rs1,345 per quintal in Karimnagar, Rs1,365 per quintal in Sangli and Rs1,525 per quintal in Delhi.

Lanworth trimmed its outlook for the US corn production to 13.7 billion bushels as compared with 13.8 billion bushels in a report issued two weeks ago, due to small changes to Lanworth's corn plantings outlook. Moreover, Lanworth also reduced its expectations for corn production in Argentina to 25.0MT from 25.1MT following extreme dry conditions in January and early February while raised its expectation for Brazil corn production to 75.8MT from 75.6MT

European traders revealed that Taiwan's MFIG corn purchasing group has purchased 60,000 tonne of corn to be sourced from Argentina in a snap tender.

Outlook: Steady to range-bound movement likely to be witnessed in the coming days.

Trade Idea: Buy wheat, chilli, turmeric and cardamom on dips, sell sugar while others are likely to remain range-bound.

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