November 21, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 15, 1423

KARACHI, Nov 20: Cotton prices on Wednesday remained stable as ginners slowed down their selling offers despite overtures from spinners to raise their bid rates and held on to their positions.

There appeared to be slight weakness in the central Sindh variety depending on quality as some of the lots were sold as low as Rs1,915 per maund but bulk of the business in the Punjab variety was done well above Rs2,000 per maund, the highest rate being Rs2,085.

Trading in Sindh variety resumed at Rs1,915 but as the mill demand picked up, prices steadily rose to Rs1.990 toward the close.

“Ginners have already absorbed the negative impact of larger than market expectation arrivals of phutti on the price line of both phutti and lint at least for the near-term”, says a leading ginner adding “there is no possibility of fall in prices below the benchmark rate of Rs2,000”.

Although there was a significant restrain in ginner offerings, spinners on the other hand were not inclined to take even a technical breather both for price and quality reasons, dealers said.

They said the conflicting reports about the size of the crop now should end as the Punjab cotton belt is expected to spring pleasant surprises during the second picking despite the fact that there were reports of damage to standing crop.

The second picking in some of the areas of the Punjab cotton belt has just started and the arrival figures for the fortnight ending Nov 30, will give a fair idea of the total crop, they added.

It is interesting to note that the local market is guided by the supply and demand factors and is not influenced by the erratic price movements on the world cotton markets, notably the New York Cotton Exchange, where the speculative activity is said to be at its peak.

It was perhaps because of this fact that New York cotton futures show sharp either-way movements. On Tuesday, both the ruling December and the distant March settlements fell by 1.41 and 1.26 cents per lb at 46.80 and 49.71 cents per lb respectively on heavy selling.

After having fallen for the last three days, official spot rate were firmly held at the last close in line with those in the ready section.

Ready offtake was active and amounted to about 25,000 bales as under:

SINDH TYPE: 200 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs1,915, 200 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs1,925, 200 bales, Khipro at Rs1,950, 300 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs1,965, 500 bales, Nawab Shah at Rs1,990, and 400 bales, K-68 Throshah at Rs2,050.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 2,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,075, 3,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,065 to Rs2,075, 4,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,050 to Rs2,075, 3,200 bales, Lodhran at Rs2,085, 1,000 bales, Rajanpur at Rs2,065, 400 bales, D.G.Khan also at Rs2,065, 1,000 bales, Mian Channu at Rs2,000, 400 bales each Gojra and Chichawatni at Rs2,000, 1,400 bales, Burewala at Rs2,000 to Rs2,025, and 1,500 bales, Hasilpur at Rs2,000 to Rs2,025.