November 12, 2003	Wednesday	Ramazan 16, 1424

KARACHI, Nov 11: Cotton market on Tuesday maintained firm trend as spinners remained willing buyers at the overnight average rate of Rs3,350 or slightly above it depending on the quality of lint.

Most of the deals transacted late on Monday evening were in bulk as spinners seemed to have found a cue to the developing future cotton scenario and were not inclined to take risk of low inventory, dealers said.

Their bulk purchases indicate that they are mostly covering their forward yarn sale positions and are within their export parity levels, of course, after taking into account the world lint prices, they said.

“The reports that textile exports were higher during the last month show that spinners and mills have already taken into account the current price hike and apparently passed it on to the foreign buyers”, market sources said.

The reports that the government was considering the waiving of the 15 per cent sales tax on lint cotton to give relief to the textile industry to keep it competitive on the world markets for a certain period was another positive development for the industry.

But brokers were divided over the future price outlook if the government waives the 15pc sales tax. Some say prices would come down at the scale of sale tax amount, while some others claim prices may rise owing to a short crop and ginners reluctance to lower their asking rates after having purchased phutti at the higher prices.

“Each day some new elements enter the cotton trade but none of them is able to lower prices”, says a leading broker adding “the supply and demand factors will continue to guide the price line in future also”.

New York cotton futures on Monday opened lower but did not have negative impact on the local prices as they did when rose to limit-gains recently. As a result, both the ruling December and the distant March settlements were quoted lower by 0.57 and 0.32 cents per lb at 76.70 and 79.73 cents per lb respectively.

Local official spot rates, however, did not show any change and were firmly held at the last levels, although most of the deals in ready section were done at the higher prices.

Ready offtake was active as till late on Monday evening about 15,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the notable deals.

SINDH TYPE: 400 bales, Sanghar at Rs3,050, 200 bales and Shahdadpur at Rs3,100.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Sadiqabad, 2,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan, 1,000 bales, Khanpur, 1,000 bales, Bahawalpur, 1,000 bales, D.G.Khan, 1,000 bales, Burewala and 1,000 bales, Shujabad at Rs3,400, 200 bales, Lodhran at Rs3,350, 1,000 bales, Gojra and 1,000 bales, Muridwali, 400 bales, Mung Bungalow, 1,000 bales, Chistian and 1,400 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs3,350 to Rs3,400.