KARACHI, Sept 19: Cotton prices on Friday remained stable as spinners were not inclined to take even a technical breather and lifted all the lots offered for sales by ginners.

Despite Friday session, ready business was fairly active as spinners remained active buyers, the major emphasis being on the Punjab variety, which was available slightly lower rates as compared to its Sindh counterpart, dealers said. Some of the deals in the latter were reported at Rs2,500 per maund indicating a fresh price flare-up in the sessions to come.

Unconfirmed reports claim the quality of the Punjab lint, notably its micronaire is slightly below normal standards, which in turn has a negative impact on its ready prices.

While most of the deals in Sindh type were done around Rs2,450, some lots from the central Punjab cotton belt were sold around 2,425 per maund excluding sales tax.

Floor brokers said spinners are awaiting the arrival of fine and contamination-free lint from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab ginneries where picking operations have just resumed and it will available possibly by the first week of the next month on the commercial scale.

However, despite highly erratic price movements on the New York Cotton Exchange for the last couple of sessions amid fears of damage to the standing crop because of the hurricane, local market remained relatively stable as buying matched the selling, they said.

But they ruled out the possibility of any major change in the current price outlook for the next couple of weeks despite arrival of southern Punjab lint, amounting to about 1.5m bales.

Official spot rates were, therefore, held at the overnight levels and are expected to be marked up on Saturday in line with those in the ready section.

New York cotton futures on the other hand again fell on speculative selling and finished lower by 0.76 and 0.75 cents at 63.87 and 65.84 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements respectively.

Ready offtake was active as till late in the evening about 7,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH VARIETY: 200 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,500, 200 bales, Shadadpur also at Rs2,500, 200 bales, at Rs2,490, 200 bales, Khadro at Rs2,475, 200 bales, at Rs2,465.