September 18, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1424

KARACHI, Sept 17: Cotton prices on Wednesday remained stable as despite steady arrivals of phutti into the ginneries, ginners held on to their positions rather than selling at the dips.

There was, no panic when the trading resumed as ginners were in no mood to sell their stock below Rs2,400 per maund despite further steep decline in New York cotton futures.

However, lint from the central Sindh and Punjab was sold at par for the second day in a row as spinners were not inclined to go for quality but rather for quantity owing to pressure on ready supplies.

Although bulk of the ready business was not reported owing to direct deals between the ginners and the spinners late in the evening, brokers claim about 15,000 to 20,000 bales are changing hands daily.

“Spinners are terribly short of their daily consumption needs partly because of expensive imports and partly to a previous year’s short crop”, brokers said and added “leading spinner groups having secure export outlets and sound financial positions are trying to build-up long positions at the prevailing rates followed by predictions of continued bull-run”.

Reports that China is in the world market to cover its crop shortfall of about half a million bales of lint may not allow prices to fall below the 60-cent per lb mark during the next couple of months and that factor in turn could push local prices on the higher side, they said.

They said although reports of pest attack are pouring in daily but they will be taken as rumours and not the bearish factor until exact figure of the damage is known.

According to market sources demand for the local cotton yarn and cloth is picking up as foreign importers are making forward purchases fearing further increase in world prices.

The notable feature was that private sector exporters have resumed their buying operations and have registered 653 bales with the Export Promotion Bureau during the current season up to Sept 15, total foreign sales from Aug 1, rose to 8,036 bales against which physical shipments of 6,671 bales has already been made.

Official spot rates were lowered by Rs50 in line with the overnight decline in prices but on Wednesday prices remained stable.

New York cotton futures on the other hand remained under pressure and fell further by 1.25 and 1.32 cents at 62.80 and 64.38 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the forward December settlements respectively.

Ready offtake was modest owing to selective selling by the ginners totalling about 4,000 bales, the following being some notable deals:

SINDH VARIETY: 200 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,450, 100 bales, at Rs2,425, 300 bales at Rs2,400, 400 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,400, 200 bales, each Sultanabad and Mirpurkhas at Rs2,325.

PUNJAB TYPE: 200, each Sahiwal, Bahawalnagar Vehari and Hasilpur at Rs2,425 and 300 bales, Mian Channu also at Rs2,425.