May 6, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1424

KARACHI, May 5: Cotton prices on Monday rose modestly but physical trading remained slow as spinners and mills were not inclined to making bigger commitments.

However, some of the fine and contamination-free lots changed hands around Rs2,600 per maund—the rate claimed to be an average at which leading ginners indulge in selling but are not willing to sell below this level.

Some of the inferior lots are traded below this season’s highest rate as ginners holding odd lots are trying to get out of them apparently disappointed by the continued absence of spinners from the market, brokers said.

They said it went to the credit of the spinners and mills as they contained speculative price flare-up after the reports of a short crop of 9.7m bales reached the market.

“Leading spinners who had covered bulk of their annual consumption requirements earlier in the season around Rs2,200 per maund mostly played hide and seek with the ginners never allowing ginners to raise their asking prices”, they added.

Spinners stayed on the sidelines for a couple of days and entered only to cover their most pressing needs denying the benefits of higher prices based on supply and demand factors to the ginners, they said.

According to market sources, ginners still hold an unsold stock of about 0.25m bales but in the absence of strong mill demand they are sitting idle on them awaiting for the start of mills’ buying.

Exporters are also conspicuous by their absence as some of them are selling their uncommitted stocks to the spinners and mills as it is now more profitable to sell to them rather than exporting, they said.

Meanwhile, import figure of lint through the Karachi port swelled to 0.427m bales from 0.409m bales, after the arrival of imported stuff of about 18,000 bales during the last couple of days. The import through Port Qasim stood unchanged at 62,793 bales, according to official figures upto April 26.

Official spot rates inched up by Rs5 after several sessions at Rs2,540 but in physical trading some of the deals were done above this level.

Ready business was light as till late in the evening about 2,500 bales changed hands as under: 700 bales from Khanpur at Rs2,600 and 1,800 bales from Nurpur Nauranga at Rs 2,550 to Rs 2,575.