KARACHI, March 15: Cotton market on Friday passed through a relatively quieter session as spinners took a technical pause to have an overview of their inventories before making fresh commitments.

Spinners and mills have been active buyers throughout the week and have purchased about 50,000 bales, adding significantly to the prevailing price flare-up, dealers said.

They are expected to resume their moping up operations possibly by the next week as most of them hold short positions and have to go a long to cover their annual consumption needs, they added.

Ginners too were not in a haste and held on to the positions indicating that they will sell at their own prices rather than going for the dictates from the outside.

“The unsold positions now seem to be manageable”, claims a leading ginner “the fact that the large figure of 2 million bales is progressively heading to a million bales mark has encouraged us to hold on”.

Although exact unsold stock lying with the ginners will be known by the fortnightly arrival figures due to be released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) by the middle of the next week, unofficial estimates put them around 1.3 million bales, says a leading cotton broker.

Owing to presence of the TCP and the private sector exporters on the market, ginners are virtually assured of steady outflow of unsold stocks to them depending on the offered prices.

Market sources said reports of a pick up in cotton yarn exports is expected to accelerate the pace of short-covering by mills and spinners during the next couple of weeks, which could cause further rise in prices.

Moreover, exporters are also said to be active buyers at the prevailing prices, although their major thrust is on the inferior varieties available below Rs1,500 per maund, they added.

It was in this background that future outlook for the lint appears to be bullish as exports of cotton made-ups and fabrics are expected to rise further because of increase in quotas by the European Union.

Official spot rates ruled firm, although the deals being finalized in the ready section are much higher as compared to them.

Ready business was light totalling about 3,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals: 1,200 bales, Kot Lalo at Rs1,725 and 400 bales, Akri also at the same rate.