December 12, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 26, 1422

KARACHI, Dec 11: After a week of hectic activity, trading on the cotton market on Tuesday remained terribly insipid as spinners stayed on the sidelines awaiting further developments on the export front.

Floor brokers said reports of increase in textile quota and cut in tariffs by the European Union to give needed boost to textiles from Pakistan should have enthused spinners but their absence from the market worried ginners.

However, the long perception appears to be a quite bullish as spinners are expected to back in the market after the details of duty cuts and the increase in textile quota are available, they said.

They attributed the current dullness to coming Eid holidays and the consequent delivery problems and hopes of further decline in prices in line with the international rates.

Spinners also kept to the sidelines followed by unconfirmed reports that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has slashed its lint procurement prices on some grades but as the details were not immediately available, they withdrew to the sidelines.

Spinners hope lint prices will fall further if the TCP has really revised downward its buying rates, but ginners appears to be in no mood to lower their rates and are expected to hold on to their positions until the size of the crop is clear, the market sources said.

They said the physical activity was expected to remain slow in the sessions prior to the Eid holidays as spinners would not like to make fresh commitments partly because of coming holidays and partly to delivery problems.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab cotton belts indicate that arrivals of phutti are slow as leading growers are holding on to their stocks to sell them around 1,000 per 40 kg.

The phutti prices have, recently, dropped from the peak level to around Rs900 to Rs925 but there were not many sellers or buyers as lint prices were much lower than their parity levels.

There is also a relative quiet on the export front as the private sector exporters are still watching the developments on the export front before entering the arena.

Last year, they have sold about half a million bales of lint to over three dozen countries by the current month and fresh export orders were pouring in quick succession followed by reports of a bumper crop.

Official spot rates did not show any change owing to slack physical activity but were held firm.

Ready offtake was light as stray deals were finalized around Rs1,800 to Rs1,825 for Sindh type and Rs2,000 for the southern Punjab lint.