Slow Trading in Cotton

KARACHI, April 15: The activity on the cotton market on Friday remained relatively slow as ginners held back their unsold stocks owing to fresh fall in prices.

Reports from the global trading centres, notably from the New York futures market, were bearish as the decline continued for the fourth session in a row on selling prompted by reports of higher crop estimates, floor brokers said.

Both the ruling May and the forward July contracts were marked further down by 1.31 and 2.64 cents per lb at 196.04 and 178 cents, respectively, what the local spinners called a retreat toward a competitive price outlook for the world consumers, they added.

Stray lots including some odd ones, however, did change hands around Rs11,000 per maund but spinners anticipating further decline kept to the sidelines most of the time, market sources said.

Unlike the previous sessions, spinners and mills seem to be in a winning position as ginners are inclined to clear the backlog of unsold stocks, while spinners are seeking fresh decline, notably for the inferior lots, they said.

According to some analysts bulk of the fine lots had already been sold at an average price of Rs12,500 per maund and now some low-mix lots are being offered by the ginners at the lower prices.

Official spot rates were held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs12,000 per maund but in the ready section some of the deals were done well below them.

Mill ready off-take was light as under:

159 bales, Dharki and 200 bales, Mian Channu at Rs11,000 and 200 bales, Muhammadpur Dewan at Rs11,200.