Commodities
Positive tone in gold
A STEADY tendency marked gold market last week with prices trading in a range, but the tone was unmistakably positive. The urge towards an upward push was restrained by a strong dollar.

Plantations
All eyes on stabilisation scheme
After a steady rise over the past five months, cocoa prices have recently shown signs of weakening. Spot prices on the Coffee Sugar and Cocoa Exchange, which surged 76 per cent from a low of $674 per tonne in December 2000 to $1,189 per tonne in February 2001 has since fallen to $900 levels. Expectations of a sharp drop in the Ivory Coast cocoa crop, to around 10 lakh tonnes in 2000-01, from 14 lakh tonnes last year, helped push up prices. Ivory Coast produces around 40 per cent of the world's cocoa. It was expected that this would push the world cocoa market from a surplus to a deficit position of around 2 lakh tonnes in 2000-01.

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