June 3, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1424

KARACHI, June 2: Trading on the cotton market on Monday resumed on a dull note where physical business remained at a low ebb as price ideas of buyers and sellers failed to find a meeting ground.

Dealers said stray enquiries, however, came in from the local spinners for some central Sindh inferior lots and some of them reportedly changed hands below Rs2,500 per maund. But there was no official confirmation of any of the deal.

They said spinners and mills were purchasing modest quantities of lint direct from the ginners without involving the brokerage houses and that is perhaps why the details of mill offtake is hardly available for the last couple of weeks.

Most of the leading brokers who sitting idle and are awaiting the arrival of new crop from the lower Sindh ginneries to resume their normal operations claim “they never witnessed before sluggish conditions as the prevailing one when the unsold stocks are there but no deal is routed through the brokerage houses.”

Most of them had already closed their current season weeks before and are preparing for the new one, which is expected to start by the middle of the next month.

Market sources said the picking operations of phutti, delayed for a couple of weeks owing to recent rain in some ares in the lower Sindh cotton belt, were expected to be resumed by the end of the current month provided there is no fresh rain.

Depending on the resumption of picking operations, some of the ginneries in the lower Sindh are expected to resume their operations by the first week or by the end of next month, they said.

Some other said the new crop, though on a modest scale, will be available by the middle of the next month but those who are entertaining lower prices ideas may be mistaken as higher fixation of phutti prices at Rs850 per 40 kg will not allow ginners to sell lint below Rs2,200 per maund.

The new crop prices could be on the higher side of the market perceptions partly because of pressure on supplies owing to previous short crop and partly to heavy mill buying to cover short positions, they added.

Official spot rates remained pegged at the last levels in the absence of business in the ready section, which generally determines the spot rates based on the prices in physical trading.

Although unconfirmed reports say some deals were finalized direct between the mills and the ginners but details were not readily available with the brokerage houses.