November 25, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 9, 1422

KARACHI, Nov 24: Quieter conditions prevailed on the cotton market on Saturday as both, buyers and sellers locked in a war of wits, kept to the sidelines but it appears to be a no-win situation for the both.

After having already imported about 0.3 million since September last and having purchase about 4 million bales from the local new crop stuff, spinners and mills are no doubt in a commanding position and stay out of the market for more days, ginners may not have that long holding capacity.

But for the time all the major players in the cotton traded, grower, ginner and the spinner have taken rigid positions but only time will tell who is the winner.

Their roles are complementary and once they came out of the tussle the inter-market mechanism tells them there is no loser and no winner.

Spinners have to buy lint irrespective of the price tag as they have to keep the wheels of their industry moving and ginners can not store lint beyond the season because of quality reasons. Then why they are at war with each other, sending wrong signals on the foreign markets about the supply and production positions, market sources said.

“The current psychological battle of wits appears to be at its peak but only the size of the crop will decide who is the ultimate winner”, cotton analysts said, adding “the balance seems to tilting in favour of the grower for the time being.”

“To manipulate the situation is the part of the game, although in the final analysis no one could be the beneficiary of both the price flare-up or the market collapse,” some others comment on the prevailing spot cotton trading after spinners suspended fresh buying of lint cotton in a bid to push prices down what they called “from the recent seasonal highs.”

As a result, some secret deals between the leading ginners and spinners after Aftar notwithstanding, there is a relative quiet on the market and small ginners are worried over the developing situation as they are feeding their ginneries on day to day basis after selling lint daily.

But market sources hope spinners are expected to break their unofficial boycott of local purchases as ginners have refused to further lower their asking prices.

Although no rate was quoted in the ready section, some brokers claim some deals were finalized between Rs2,000 and 2,100 per maund. There was no confirmation from the official sources.

Official spot rates for all types were held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,000 per maund.