November 16, 2002	Saturday	Ramazan 10, 1423

KARACHI, Nov 15: Cotton market on Friday hummed with activity as spinners and mills continued to build-up long positions at the prevailing prices amid an actively traded session.

For the fourth session in a row spinners did not show any inclination to take even a technical breather as no one among the leading spinners is in mood to miss the quality lots at this time of the season, brokers said.

“There is a virtual scramble for the fine lots below Rs2,200 per maund”, they said adding “fears of an expected pressure on supplies of quality lint continues to inspire strong mill buying in each session”.

The general thinking among the leading spinners is that the crop may be short of the total annual consumption needs of the textile industry as a whole and imports at the end of the season may be a bit expensive.

According to textile industry sources, the mill demand during the current season is expected to touch the high mark of 12m bales but the local total crop may not exceed the projected figure of 10.5m bales for obvious reasons including lower acreage as compared to the last year.

“An expected gap of about 0.1m bales in supply demand during the current season worry spinners and mills”, says a leading broker “there is a strong possibility of sharp increase in prices of lint toward the close of the season, notably during the months of June and July”.

Perhaps this end in view, spinners are not inclined to take even a calculated risk despite piling of yarn stocks and the consequent liquidity problems as huge amounts are tied to unsold stocks of cotton yarn and cloth.

Floor brokers said the interesting feature of brisk trading is that prices are contained below the Rs2,200 level, the lowest being Rs2,100 depending on quality of lint in trade.

Both the upper Sindh K-68 variety and the Punjab MNH-93 types are selling at the same rates because of their staple length and fine quality, they added.

Official rates were firmly held around the previous level and so did New York cotton futures, showing fractional either-way changes followed by reports of pick up in US exports of cotton.

Ready business was active as till late in the evening about over 20,000 bales changed hands as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 400 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs1,935, 500 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,050, 200 bales, Qazi Ahmed at Rs2,050, 1,000 bales, Dharki and Mirpur Mathelo at Rd2,150.

PUNJAB TYPE: 2,000 bales, D.G.Khan at Rs2,100 to Rs2,125, 1,000 bales, Alipur at Rs2,100, 3,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,125 to Rs2,140, 2,000 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs2,125 to Rs2,140, 2,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,150, 3,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,125 to Rs2,150, 1,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,140, 1,000 bales, Fazalpur at Rs2,125 to Rs2,130.