22 January 2004	Thursday	29 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 21: Cotton prices on Wednesday were firmly held around the previous levels after a section of spinners resumed their buying operations against forward sales of yarn.

Instances of quality-war among the spinners and mills were, however, not lacking as leading among them were inclined to pay more for fine and contamination-free lots.

Some of leading spinners who have substantial export orders in hand for higher counts of cotton yarn were buyers around Rs3,350 per maund. Some of the southern Punjab ginners who still hold an unsold stock of fine lots are said to be the chief sellers.

The revival of strong mill demand has encouraged ginners to hold on to their unsold positions amid hopes of an increase in prices if the quality-war among the mills and spinners continues.

The interesting feature was that big-lot business was reported after several lean sessions indicating that some of the spinners have broken the status quo fearing further increase in prices, brokers said. But some inter-mill deals around Rs3,350 per maund indicates that some of the spinners find it more profitable to sell lint instead of converting it into cotton yarn for export markets, they said.

However, the market lacked normal trading interest as leading spinners were again conspicuous by their absence because of delivery problems and higher fare being demanded by the cargo haulers.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the southern cotton belt indicate that arrivals of phutti, which had shown a substantial increase during the last week have considerably been slowed down, although some of the ginners are offering a competitive prices around Rs1,450 per 40 kg, dealers said.

The drying up of arrivals reflects that the total size of the crop could be 9.5m bales plus, telling spinners and mills to make up the expected shortfall from the foreign sources, the added.

Official spot rates ruled steady around the previous levels in the absence of positive indicators from the ready market. Ready offtake was moderately active as about 10,000 bales changed hands as under:

SINDH TYPE: 2,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs3,050.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Sahiwal at Rs3,165, 1,000 bales, Hasilpur at Rs3,250, 4,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs3,300 to Rs3,350 and 2,000 bales, mill-to-mill at Rs3,350.