Agri-commodity prices remain steady

The prices of all major commodities held steady in the wholesale foodgrains market here today.

The following are the wholesale rates of various agri-commodities today
(in rupees per quintal, except where stated otherwise):

• tur dal Rs 6,000,

• urad dal Rs 6,400,

• moong dal Rs 6,600,

• gram dal Rs 2950,

• sugar Rs 2,700,

• wheat Rs 1,800,

• maida (90 kg) Rs 1,600 and

• sooji (90 kg) Rs 1,800.

Sensex declines 18 points

The BSE benchmark Sensex opened over 18 points lower Friday on sustained selling by foreign funds and retail investors ahead of the release of factory output data for the month of April later on Friday.

The 30-share barometer, which lost over 110 points in the previous two sessions, fell further by 18.04 points, or 0.10 per cent, to 18,366.86 points in the first five minutes of trade.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index slid by 11.40 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 5,509.65 points.

According to market experts, the trading sentiment turned bearish on sustained selling by funds and retail investors ahead of the release of index of industrial production (IIP) data later Friday.

Nifty lacklustre

Indian equity benchmarks were completely lacklustre in early trade. Indices remain in a tight range for the sixth day in a row - the Nifty has been moving in a range of 5500-5550 despite positive US cues.

The market may remain in a narrow band over the next few months. "The market looks fairly priced at the moment, but the uncertain macro environment indicates that risks are to the downside. We believe the market may remain in a narrow band over the next few months, hence investors should consider focusing on accumulating good quality names that have strong balance sheets and earnings visibility."

Baba Ramdev and his aides declare financial assets

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Citigroup card customers’ data hacked

Computer hackers have breached Citigroup's computer network and have accessed data on hundreds of thousands of its card customers, the Financial Times said. Citigroup said the breach, which affected about 1 per cent of its card customers, was discovered in early May through routine monitoring, the newspaper said.

According to the bank's annual report, Citi Cards has about 21 million customers in North America. The breach occurred at Citi Account Online, which holds basic customer information such as names, account numbers and e-mail addresses.

Other information such as birth dates, social security numbers and card security codes are held elsewhere and were not compromised, Citi said.

"The bank said it had contacted law enforcement officials and tightened its fraud detection procedures, but declined to provide further details or to say whether customers had reported suspicious transactions," the FT reported.

Though Citigroup said the breach involved only credit card accounts, the FT said that several people have told it their debit card details were compromised.

Hacking into companies is increasingly becoming common. Lockheed Martin, PBS and Sony have all recently had their security systems violated.