KARACHI, Sept 18: Physical business on the cotton market on Tuesday remained fairly brisk as both spinners and textile mill owners continued to cover positions against forward sales of cotton yarn to Far Eastern buyers.

The steady increase in the ready business over the last couple of sessions reflects that the prevailing prices are in line with the parity levels of both ginners and the textile industry.

“In the current global textile market scenario, the prevailing prices are competitive and no one among us is inclined to keep to the sidelines at least for the near-term,” spinners say.

Micronaire problems are there but they could be balanced after resorting to blending of superior lots with those of having this problems to spin cotton yarn for the export markets, they added.

Some other spinners say larger blending of polyester fibre with the cotton to produce blended cloth for the export markets also eases the problem of low mic.

According to them the percentage of polyester fibre in cotton has risen to over 30 per cent as the export demand for the blended fabrics rise during the winter season.

Most of the leading spinners who have secured export markets for the blended cloth claim excepting summer, prices of this product-line remains fairly steady. The recent increase in prices of polyester fibre is also attributed to active mill demand.

Floor brokers said the current pick up in mill buying is reflective of the changing world demand for the fabrics being produced here and at higher prices.

The official spot rates remained stable at the previous levels but are likely to be revised upward on Thursday in line with the prevailing rates at which the business is being transacted.

After having fallen during the last couple of sessions, New York cotton futures on the other hand resisted fresh decline and rose fractionally by 0.3 and 0.18 cents per lb at 41.18 and 43.14 for both the ruling October and the distant December contracts, respectively.

Ready offtake was active as till late in the evening about 5,000 bales reported to have changed hands as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 200 bales of Shahdadpur at Rs1,975, 200 bales at Rs1,960; 400 bales, Tando Adam at Rs1,950, 200 bales at Rs1,960 and 200 bales at Rs1,975; 400 bales, Nawabshah at Rs1,975; 400 bales, Sakrand at Rs1,975; 200 bales, Moro at Rs1,960; and 100 bales of Qazi Ahmed at Rs1,960.