01 February 2004	Sunday	09 Zilhaj 1424

KARACHI, Jan 31: Pre-Eid holiday mood prevailed on the cotton market on Saturday as spinners just marked time and did not offer to make fresh commitments , although some of the ginners lowered their asking prices.

The topic of discussion among the buyers and the sellers was prices of sacrificial animals and their strategy to buy a goat or cow after probing the entire cattle market.

The long weekend ahead because of Eid holidays, the market will now re-open next Friday, which may witness dull trading as spinners and ginners will spend most of the time in exchanging Eid greetings rather than indulging in physical trading despite being in a short supply position, brokers said.

The normal trading is expected to resume in the week following the Eid holidays as by that time the New York cotton futures may stabilize at a competitive rate, they said.

During the last couple of session, both March and the May contracts have fallen by about 8 cents per lb after having passed through successive clearings.

However, on Thursday, the trend was reversed as both the contracts ended with limit-gains of 2.07 and 2.08 cents per lb at 70.73 and 72.59 cents respectively.

The rebound was attributed to speculative support at the lower levels but local market sources predict future prices could ease further on the New York Cotton Exchange because of higher production figures in some of the countries and a considerable decline in forward buying by China.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) announced that the arrival figures for the fortnight ended Dec 31, 2004 will be delayed owing to Eid holidays and will be released after the holidays.

However, market sources said the arrival figures may be around 9.2 or 9.3m bales, which in turn is expected to keep local prices higher for the near-term irrespective of news from the New York Cotton Exchange.

Official spot rates remained basically unchanged from the previous levels in the absence of dull trading in the ready section.

Some of the spinners, however, claimed to be buyer at Rs3,300 to Rs3,325 per maund for the fine lots and Rs2,900 to Rs3,100 for the inferior lots but there was no official deal.

Although bulk of the phutti has already reached the ginneries, some of the growers holding modest quantities are selling it between Rs1,400 to Rs1,425 per 40 kg, while inferior lots are fetching between Rs1,000 to Rs1,100.