Promising Start

be unexpectedly large. These sales had been effected in the hope that they could be covered at lower prices in the wake of increased flow of new crop arrivals. But these calculations have been upset. 'Shorts' have been forced to cover their sales in a rising market. Mills which had been keeping off the market on ideas of a substantially larger crop have turned active buyers because of the contra-seasonal hardening tendency in prices. There have been reports of fairly extensive buying by co-operative societies on behalf of the State-run mills. Crop estimates have been gradually revised down from 64/65 lakh bales to around 60 lakh bales and there are quite a few observers who place the crop at around 58 lakh bales or lower. How far these estimates have been influenced by the prevailing market psychology is difficult to say. Nearly al the commodity markets are in the grip of bullish fever.