09 January 2004	Friday	16 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 8: The cotton market showed a slight weakness on Thursday but ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices despite steep decline in New York cotton futures.

Spinners and mills, therefore, significantly curtailed their daily intake followed by predictions of a further decline in prices and their likely sympathetic impact on the local prices, brokers said.

Quality lint from the central and upper Sindh cotton belt changed hands between Rs2,950 and Rs3,100 per maund, while southern Punjab lint was traded between Rs3,200 and Rs3,325, but spinners were in no mood to buy at a high rate of Rs3,400 as they have been doing for the last couple of sessions.

Some of the spinners are foreseeing an erosion in prices in the sessions to come on the basis of quality and preferred to keep to the sidelines awaiting further decline.

New York cotton futures on Wednesday evening fell sharply lower on speculative selling caused by some positive production data from the leading producers.

Both the ruling March and the distant May settlements were quoted lower by 1.63 and 1.53 cents per lb at 74.04 and 75.30 cents, respectively. "I don't think local prices will be influenced bearishly in line with New York cotton futures," says a leading broker. "Local prices are generally guided by the supply and demand factors rather than any other external adverse development."

After having made hectic buying, the spinners do take a technical breather to assess the future supply position and its likely impact on the prices, he adds. But some others said the spinners had made a substantial covering purchases, including some big lots during the last couple of session, raising weekly tally to about 0.1m bales and took a technical breather to have an overview of their inventories before resuming daily buying.

Official spot rates were marked down by Rs25 per maund at Rs3,275 and in ready section some of the deals were finalized in line with them. Ready offtake was light totalling about 15,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs3,030 to Rs3,100; 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs3,000 to Rs3,050; 1,000 bales, Shahpur Chakkar at Rs2,950 to Rs3,100; and 1,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs3,175.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 4,400 bales of Haroonabad at Rs3,200 to Rs3,350.