The rice market witnessed a downtrend on Monday as aromatic and non-basmati rice prices dropped by Rs 10-40 a quintal.

Mr Amit Chandna, proprietor of Hanuman Rice Trading Company, said adequate stocks against low buying pulled the prices down. Traders are not getting the expected order levels and the market may continue to rule around current levels, he added.

Pusa-1121 (steam) decreased by Rs 10 to Rs 4,910 a quintal, Pusa-1121 (sela) ruled flat at Rs 3,900-3,925, while Pusa-1121(raw) traded at Rs 4,400.

Duplicate basmati dropped by Rs 30 to Rs 3,500-3,530. After witnessing a sharp decline last weekend, pure basmati (raw) was steady and sold at around Rs 6,000 a quintal, while basmati (sela) ruled at Rs 4,000 a quintal.

Sluggish domestic demand pulled the prices of the brokens of Pusa-1121. Tibar went down by Rs 25 to Rs 3,100-3,275, Dubar fell by Rs 40 to around Rs 2,560 and Mongra traded at Rs 1,900-2,085 a quintal, down Rs 15 from its previous level.

Similarly, non-basmati varieties failed to maintain their previous levels on account of low trading.

After ruling flat for almost 10 days, Sharbati (steam) dropped marginally by Rs 20 to Rs 2,900-2,980, while the Sharbati (sela) sold at Rs 2,750-2,790 a quintal.

PR-11 (sela) sold at Rs 2,000-2,180 and PR-11(raw) at Rs 1,950-2,140 a quintal. Permal varieties quoted marginally lower — sela ruled at Rs 1,700-1,935 and raw traded at Rs 1,900-2,080.

Tibar decreased by Rs 25 to Rs 2,350-2,475, Dubar was at Rs 2,100-2,200 and Mongra at around Rs 1,700-1,730 a quintal