KARACHI, Dec 14: Cotton market on Friday passed through another lean session as spinners kept to the sidelines and did not bid for any lot owing partly to delivery problems.

Dealers said the pre-Eid holiday mood prevailed as both the buyers and the sellers discussed implications of the attack on Indian parliament on Thursday and its negative impact on the regional politics.

The incident coming in just in the wake of relative calm on the Afghan war front and Indian political overtures in Afghanistan may have created some new problems for Pakistan.

The cotton traders were, therefore, more interested to have the views of their counterparts on the attack on Indian parliaments and its impact on Pakistan rather than having discussions on the future cotton market outlook, dealers said.

Some of the local spinners were, however, worried over the fresh negative developments in the regional politics and their impact on the cotton trade.

“Owing to financial constraints, they almost operate on day-to-day basis and any gap created by holidays create supply problems for them,” brokers said.

In such emergencies, inter-mill business plays its role as smaller mills get supplies from the bigger ones on kind basis, that is the lenders will not sell them, but borrowers will arrange for them the same quantity of lint lots after the holidays.

And that keeps the wheels moving even during long weekend holidays and when the market re-opens borrowers repay their debts in physical form, brokers said.

Market sources said some of the leading exporters are warming up as they have started receiving import enquiries from their traditional partners after shippers have reduced container freight rates and war risk charges.

Exports are expected to pick up early in January as by that some of the pending letters of credit will be re-validated, they added.

Despite a modest decline in New York cotton futures below around 36 cents per lb for the ruling March contract, local official spot rates stayed dormant at Rs1,950 per maund.

Some deals was reported in the Punjab type late on Thursday night around Rs2,000 per maund but details were not available here.