KARACHI, Sept 26: Active trading was again witnessed on the cotton market on Thursday as spinners remained active buyers for any number of bales around Rs2,000 per maund.

The trading resumed around the overnight level but as the session progressed mill demand gathered fresh momentum as leading spinners virtually combed the market to lift all the lots on sale.

Prices started to rise from the opening level of Rs1,975 after a brief softening to Rs1,950 but it proved to be day’s lowest bid as till the close bulk of the business was transacted at a uniform rate of Rs2,000 per maund.

Punjab lint on the other hand was again sold at a discount as compared to its Sindh counterpart owing to quality factors including low micronaire, dealers said.

The reports from the export front were claimed to be fairly encouraging as the local cotton yarn is finding ready markets and competitive prices on the major foreign selling outlets.

“The standoff on the yarn export front is now almost over”, says a leading spinner “the high incidence of piling of unsold stocks is progressively fading enabling mills and spinners to resume their seasonal purchases”.

The liquidity problems are, however, there as local sales are mostly being made on credit basis, while ginners are not inclined to provide the same facility to spinners, he adds.

“The cotton trading has now run a full circle as both the grower or the ginner is not inclined to hold on to his unsold positions for obvious reasons including the deceptive foreign market outlook”, one broker said.

Although the local market is not literally influenced by the erratic price movements on the New York cotton futures, it certainly provides spinners an alternate source of supply depending on the parity level, he added.

There was no change on the official spot rates, which were quoted unchanged at Rs1,950 per maund but New York cotton futures failed to extend the overnight rally and fell to close lower by 0.35 and 0.75 cents per lb at 41.80 and 43.79 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December contracts respectively.

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

SINDH TYPE: 400 bales, Sanghar at Rs1,975, 600 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs1,950, 200 bales, Naushero Feroze at Rs2,000, 200 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,000, 200 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,000, 200 bales, Bucheri at Rs2,000, 200 bales, Panjmoro at Rs2,000 and 400 bales, Khipro at Rs1,950.