Chana futures dropped to the maximum permissible limit, while slack demand owing to rain in Madhya Pradesh pounded the commodity in the spot market on Tuesday.

Chana (kanta) crashed by Rs 150 to Rs 4,700 a quintal; chana (desi) crashed by Rs 150 to Rs 4,500.

Chana (kanta) prices in the past four days have crashed by Rs 300 a quintal. Four days ago, chana prices had zoomed to Rs 5,000 a quintal with speculators buying chana at higher rate.

However, hopes of better crop made stockists release the existing stocks.

Local mandis

With selling pressure outweighing demand, chana prices in the local mandis are witnessing a continuous decline for the past 2-3 days, said a trader, Sanjay Bansal, adding that any major fall in chana prices from its current level appears unlikely, given rise in demand ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi festival.

However, a section of traders ruled out bullish trend in chana in near future.

Given bumper crops of chana in Australia and Canada, which is expected to be two-and-half-times more and prospect of bumper crops in the country, will unlikely to push up chana prices.

Added to this, weak demand in pulses would also lead to bearish sentiment in chana, said another trader Mr Prakash Vora.

Downtrend also continued in chana dal on weak demand and fall in spot chana prices in the physical market. Chana dal on Tuesday further declined by Rs 100 a quintal with chana dal (average) in local mandis slipping to Rs 5,650-75; chana dal (medium) at Rs 5,750-75; chana dal (bold) declined to Rs 6,025-50 a quintal. Chana dal was down Rs 200-300 a quintal in local mandis.

Improved domestic demand has pushed up dollar chana prices in local mandis in the past one week by Rs 200 to Rs 7,500-8,000 a quintal, even as arrivals increased to 1,000-1,200 bags.

In container also, dollar chana prices in the past one week have gone up by Rs 200-500 a quintal on improved export demand with dollar chana (42/44 count) being quoted at Rs 9,400 a quintal; 44/46 count at Rs 9,200; 46/48 count at Rs 9,100; 58/60 at Rs 7,400, while dollar chana (60/62 count) ruled at Rs 7,300 a quintal.

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