October 3, 2003	Friday	Sha’aban 6, 1424

KARACHI, Oct 2: Cotton prices on Thursday remained stable around Rs2,600 per maund as ready offtake was maintained on the higher side for the fourth session in a row amid active two-way trade. Surveys conducted by some of the private agencies including spinners claim that late pest attack in some of the areas in the entire cotton belt has damaged the standing crop but “whether or not the damage is below or above the economic injury level is pretty difficult to predict at this stage.”

The current persistent mill buying reflects that leading among them may have a fair idea of the damage and are out to grab the floating stock, says a leading broker.

Both spinners and mills are, therefore, in no mood to sit on the sidelines and lifted all the lots including some big ones between Rs2,550 and Rs2,600 as these rates are claimed to be falling in line with their export parity levels for the end-products.

Exporters were also active and purchased modest lots from the central ginners around Rs2,550 per maund but were in no mood to go beyond this rate, dealers said.

Floor brokers said presence of exporters in the market at the higher asking prices worried spinners and mills as they have eliminated their role as first buyers having a positive impact on the ruling prices.

According to them leading private sector exporters have made forward sales of a substantial quantity to their traditional trading partners at an attractively higher rates owing to reports of global shortage of the commodity and are covering forward positions against nearby shipments.

Although exporters are not inclined to enter into a price war with the spinners owing to their limitations, spinners are opting for panic buying fearing further rise in prices.

The other supporting factor allowing ginners to raise their asking prices is higher rates of phutti as growers refuse to sell it below Rs1,100 40 kg or slightly above this rate.

It was perhaps in this background that official spot rates were further raised by Rs25 per maund in line with those in ready section.

New York cotton futures on the other hand suffered modest pruning, off 0.30 and 0.56 cents per lb at 66.45 and 67.45 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December settlements respectively.

Ready offtake was active as till late in the evening about 15,000 bales changed hand. The following being notable some of them:

SINDH VARIETY: 400 bales, 200 each Sanghar at Rs2,550 and Rs2,560 purchased by an exporter, 1,000 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,600, 400 bales, Mehrabpur at Rs2,600,00 and 1,000 bales, Khairpur also at Rs2,600.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 5,000 bales, from various stations at Rs2,600 and 1,000 bales, Burewala at Rs2,575.