With trading being slack, prices of aromatic and non-basmati rice ruled almost unchanged on Wednesday.

The market is moving range-bound but within negative territory, said Mr Parveen Kumar, a rice miller. Traders are not getting the expected levels of orders and with not much buying, they are selling on lower margins, he added.

Market sources say Government may lift the export ban on non-basmati rice, banned in April 2008, after assessing the requirement under the proposed National Food Security Act. The Food Corporation of India has stocks higher than the buffer norm. The total buffer with the government is 59.1 million tonnes which is three times against the normal norm, say the sources.

Pusa1121 (steam) was ruling at Rs 5,200-5,320 a quintal, Pusa-1121(sela) at Rs 4,100-4,345, and Pusa-1121(raw) at Rs 5,080-5,120 a quintal.

Prices of duplicate basmati quoted at Rs 3,750-4,060 a quintal. Pure Basmati (raw) ruled around Rs 6,500-6,610 a quintal.

Prices of the brokens of Pusa 1121 dropped marginally, Tibar was quoted at Rs 3,100-3,425, Dubar at Rs 2,400-2,670 and Mongra was at Rs 1,900-2,200.

Non-basmati varieties managed to hold their previous quoted levels amid tepid selling. Sharbati (steam) quoted at Rs 3,100-3,280 while Sharbati (Sela) ruled at Rs 3,000-3,030 a quintal.

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