December 20, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 15, 1423

KARACHI, Dec 19: Cotton market on Thursday showed a relatively weak trend as some of the ginners lowered their asking prices after spinners withdrew to the sidelines but there was no panic selling from anyone of them.

The official rate committee, therefore, revised downward the official spot rates by Rs15 per maund, although in physical trading some of the big deals were done well above the previous selling prices of Rs2,100 per maund.

The recent slowdown in mill buying owing partly to year-end considerations seems to unnerved weaker links among the ginners who opted to lower their asking prices.

“I don’t think prices could ease from the current level at least for the near-term”, contends a leading broker “If the current price flare-up in the world prices is any indication the local lint could be more expensive in the sessions to come”.

New York cotton futures on Wednesday soared to 50.78 and 54.63 cents per lb for both the ruling March and the distant May settlements, up by 1.45 and 1.03 cents per lb, respectively, fuelled by strong foreign buying.

The general perception among the spinners and mills is that they may not opt for foreign lint being expensive, which in turn could push the local prices in line with the world rates during the coming weeks.

Both the spinners and mills have so far purchased about 7.5m bales against their total annual consumption needs of around 13m bales, reflecting that they have still to go a long way to cover their forward positions.

Floor brokers said the battle of wits has already started between the mills and the ginners as both are trying to tilt the price balance in their respective favours.

But the future price trend is expected to be set by the supply position and the quality of lint in trade and the external factors including the world supplies, which are billed far below the total demand, they added.

“The holding capacity of both the grower and the ginner could well prove a dominating factor as far as ready rates are concerned, although the former will be out of the game after February”, dealers said.

It was for this reason that the ready offtake was modest for the second session in a row and totalled about 20,000 bales all from the Punjab ginneries as under: 5,000 bales, Khanpur at Rs2,150, 3,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,125 to 2,150, 1,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,125, 2,000 bales, Uch Sharif at Rs2,125, 1,000 bales, Pakpattan at Rs2,140, 1,500 bales, Mian Channu at Rs2,000 and 1,000 bales, Burewala at Rs2,050 to Rs2,100.