November 7, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba’an 20, 1422

KARACHI, Nov 6: Cotton market on Tuesday showed a bullish trend as spinners continued to indulge in panic buying followed by reports of an extensive damage to the standing crop and fears of below target cotton production.

An idea of panic mill buying may well be had from the fact that they together including on late Monday evening about 30,000 bales, which brokers claim is season’s largest single-session tally so far.

Unconfirmed reports say some of the fine lots were done as higher as Rs.2,000.00 per maund but late spate of ginner selling at this level pushed prices modestly lower.

Although official crop assessment committee still sticks to its original production ideas, surveys conducted by some of the private agencies including Aptma reveal that crop has been extensively damaged in some of the southern Punjab cotton belt, which is claimed to be the largest producer.

“Fearing an imminent price flare-up beyond Rs.2,000.00 per maund after the actual production figures start arriving in the market leading spinner groups indulged in strong speculative covering purchases”, says a local cotton broker.

He says big-lot business is reflective of this fact as financially viable spinner groups are out to corner the floating stock below the Rs.2,000.00 per maund mark.

Market sources are, however, of the opinion that it is too early to speculate about the size of the crop as the damaged is restricted to selected areas, while the crop in other areas is said to be normal.

“The size of the crop may not be clear till the first week of next month and the current speculative run may have some other reasons behind it also,” they said, adding “a short local crop could influence bullishly prices elsewhere in the world”.

Official spot rates were firmly held at the last levels but New York cotton futures surged above the 30 cent per lb for the ruling December settlement at 30.58 after about three weeks persistent decline. Forward March was also quoted higher by 0.71 cents at 32.33 cents per lb.

Owing to panic mill buying ready business was large, the following being some of the notable deals done mostly in the Punjab variety:

SINDH TYPE: 600 bales of Bandhi at Rs.1,825.00, 300 bales, Sanghar at Rs.1,750.00, 200 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs.1,750.00 and 1,000 bales of Mandodero, K-68 at Rs.1,900.00.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 3,000 bales of Sadiqabad at Rs.1,900.00, 6,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs.1,900.00, 2,000 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs.1,900.00, 2,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs.1,900.00, 2,000 bales, Rajanpur at Rs.1,850 to 1,875.00, 1,000 bales each Muridwala and Gojra at Rs.1,775 to 1,800.00, 700 bales, D.G. Khan at Rs.1,825.00 and 600 bales of Bahawalnagar at Rs.1,775.00.