Rice stocks on the boil

Rice stocks are cooking a aromatic broth today on the BSE. LT Foods is currently up almost 5%, KRBL has hit a new 52-week high at Rs.33.20 and Kohinoor Foods has breached the upper circuit at Rs.41.35. All these stocks have been up since yesterday with major spike up in volumes too.

These stocks are up on reports of record exports. A PTI news report has stated that India's rice exports are estimated at a record 11 million tonnes in the 2012-13 marketing year ended September (runs from Oct to Sept) on bumper production and overseas demand, said the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).  In fact the good news is also that USDA has revised upwards the rice export estimates for MY 2013-14 to 10 million tonnes from 9.3 million tones.

Also in India, post the floods in Andhra Pradesh and very heavy rains in Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar, price of rice is expected to shoot up on lower output. In anticipation, prices have already gone up 10-30%. There is no official word yet on the collective damage to paddy crop in all these 4 states but word out is that damage could be around 15-20%.