KARACHI, Jan 8: Cotton market on Wednesday passed through a relatively dull trading session as both ginners and spinners kept to the sidelines most of the time awaiting new developments on the export front.

Stray lots did change hands slightly below the overnight rates as leading ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices and held on to their positions.

Despite being terribly short of their annual consumption needs, spinners are keeping open various options in the backdrop of higher crop figures but their chief worry appears to be to keep prices within the current range.

There is a perception shared by most of the leading spinners that higher unsold stocks of over 2m bales lying with the ginners may force them to lower their asking prices owing to liquidity problems, brokers said.

The current rise in textile exports could well mean higher lint intake for the first quarter ending March 31, having a positive impact on the price line, dealers said.

But they said the battle of wits over prices would continue for the next couple of weeks as both the ginners and the spinners were not inclined to be caught off guard at this time of the season.

“Ginners owe million of rupees to the growers against their unfixed phutti and once they fix the rates, ginners have to clear their dues within the couple of days,” they said.

Moreover, the higher ruling phutti prices, between Rs850 and Rs1,030 per 40kg on the lower and the higher sides, may allow ginners to lower their selling prices at least for the near-term.

Ginners are banking on the quality war in due course, which in turn could cause price flare-up as bulk of the fine lots and contamination-free lint is still lying notably in the southern Punjab ginneries.

Another contributory positive factor is the strong presence of the private sector exporters to cover their forward sales in most of the cases. Private sector exporters have made forward deals for well over 0.1 million bales and have so far purchases only 50,000 bales against them.

Official spot rates were, therefore, held unchanged, although some of the deals done in the ready section on the higher rates.

Ready offtake was light totalling 4,000 bales as under: 1,000 bales from D.G. Khan at Rs2,140; 200 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,150; and 1,600 bales from Chishtian at Rs2,025.