June 20, 2003	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1424

KARACHI, June 19: Trading on the cotton market remained slow as both ginners and spinners awaited the impact of last two days’ rain in the entire cotton belt.

Conflicting reports are trickling in about the rain from the cotton belt. The lower and central Sindh ginners claim that the rain is good for the standing crop as it will help its steady growth, brokers said.

But the reports from the southern Punjab cotton belt are not that encouraging as sowing in some of the areas has just been completed and may require resowing where the plants have yet to grow, they said.

However, in the central Punjab it could be beneficial for the crop where picking has just been resumed, although it could be delayed for about a week.

Floor brokers said owing to a tight supply position ginners are not inclined to lower their asking prices on the perception that spinners have to resume local buying and may now not be able to keep to the sidelines for another couple of weeks.

The fact that ginners are now holding the price line is well-reflected in a deal from the southern Punjab cotton belt, which changed hands at Rs2,540 per maund, they said.

“After having met the export target of $6.42bn before the year is out, spinners and mills are now on the right track as foreign importers have flooded them with fresh supply orders”, market sources said.

Sars-related negative factors are now have no relevance to the supply and demand factors after foreign buyers have resumed their normal purchasing operations and that will enable spinners and mills to clear the backlog of yarn and cloth piling for the last about two months.

Prices of cotton yarn both on the local and foreign markets have shown a considerable improvement, which in turn will force spinners to cover their forward positions against fresh import orders, they said.

Official spot rates were, therefore, firmly held at the last close but on the other hand New York cotton futures attracted selling at the inflated levels and fell by 0.37 and 0.42 cents per lb for both the ruling July and the distant October contracts at 56.23 and 58.13 cents per lb.

Ready offtake was light totalling about 200 bales of new crop, Sultanabad done at Rs2.325 for ready delivery.

Another lot of 600 bales of the current crop from a southern Punjab ginnery changed hands at Rs2,540 per maund.