KARACHI, April 13: Cotton market closed the weekend session on a cheerless note as spinners were again conspicuous by their absence apparently awaiting the latest arrival figures of phutti into the ginneries.

Stray lots of inferior varieties both from central Sindh and southern Punjab cotton belts did change hands, as a section of spinners was not inclined to follow the lead of the “big ones” owing to reported pressure on their stock positions.

So, the wheel of physical business kept moving though on a modest scale, having a little impact on the price line on the ready section, dealers said.

“Spinners are playing a hide-and-seek game with the ginners in a bid to keep them at their toes all the time”, claims a leading cotton broker “the move behind the entire game appears to be to keep them busy with the idea of larger unsold stocks rather than thinking of increasing prices.

According to official figures released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), for the fortnight ended April 1, ginners have in their godowns about 1.3 million bales and this figure may show a considerable increase as the mill buying remained terribly slow during the first fortnight of the current month ending on April 15.

Already lint prices have declined by Rs75 per maund over the last couple of sessions and indications are that they may fall further if spinners did not resume their normal covering operations against forward sales of cotton yarn, market sources said.

They said the unsold figure could rise to 1.5 million bales as net purchases both by the TCP and the mills were reported to be on the lower side of the weekly average.

Meanwhile, the high-ups of the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) has again launched a campaign for the resumption of hedge trading to ensure competitive prices for all those including growers, ginners and mills who are associated with cotton trade.

A representative seminar on the subject of hedge trading, cotton production and quality improvement is being planned by the KCA on May 4, to reinforce the perception that resumption of hedge trading is part and partial of the cotton economy.

Hedge trading in cotton was banned in early 70s, being billed as unIslamic mode of trading as “do not involve physical possession of the goods in trade”, dealers said.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged but New York cotton futures came in for renewed selling and fell by 0.32 and 0.48 cents per lb at 37.05 and 38.62 cents per lb for both the ruling May and distant July settlements.

Ready offtake was moderate in the absence of leading spinners totalling 2,000 bales as under: 200 bales, Sanghar at Rs1,550, 204 bales at Rs1,625 and 600 bales, Kumb at Rs1,650.