May 17, 2002	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 4, 1423

KARACHI, May 16: Cotton market on Thursday passed through a relatively cheerless trading session as buyers and sellers adhered to the sidelines awaiting the release of processing figures by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA).

“It was all quiet on the cotton front as trading partners appear to be engaged in evolving a strategy to outwit each other in the backdrop of the size of the crop”, says a broker.

But spinners claim there is no pre-data manoeuvring as the supply and demand factors will finally prevail and set the trend for the market to follow until the new crop arrives.

All eyes now seem to be focused on the arrival figures for the fortnight ended May 15, which will be close to the final total as arrival of phutti into the ginneries has dried up and ginners have closed their operations for the current season.

Smaller members of the PCGA are already sitting on the sidelines after having sold their stocks and are awaiting the arrival of new crop in the lower Sindh, which signals the advent of the new cotton season, dealers said.

They said the most worried are the big ones who hold in their godowns bulk of the unsold. As the demand for lint is falling each day in the absence of buying support there is a possibility further price erosions.

“We are awaiting the size of unsold stocks lying with the ginners”, says a leading spinner “whether or not prices are influenced by the unsold stocks will set the future market direction”.

However, it is generally speculated that spinners may not enter the market with big orders as most of them have already built up fairly long positions partly through imports and partly to local buying to see the current season through.

The current standoff is caused by lack of an appreciable support from any quarter rather than the bumper crop or the problems on the export front, dealers said.

Official rates stayed unchanged in the absence of positive feedback from the ready section and volatile world prices.

New York cotton futures also did not show much change as world demand remained slow owing to falling prices on the world textile markets.

Ready business was at a low ebb as till late in the evening only 200 bales from Khanpur changed hands at Rs1,675 per maund.