KARACHI, March 8: Cotton market on Monday passed through a dull session as spinners stayed on the sidelines apparently awaiting the opening of New York future market and its likely impact on the local prices.

For the last couple of sessions, the local market is following the trend of the New York cotton futures as they give a fair idea to the spinners and mills to plan for their forward buying of lint, brokers said.

Predictions of further decline on renewed speculative trade selling in the backdrop of higher world production as against the total consumption was another inhibiting factor curtailing mill buying, they said.

"Spinners have to fill-in the supply gap through imports", cotton analysts said adding "they are making guarded foreign buying hoping further decline in prices during the coming weeks".

But on the other hand ginners are not inclined to lower their asking prices for the fine lots and have refused to sell them below Rs3,100 per maund, having a negative impact on the daily ready business.

Stray low-mic lots did, however, change hands as spinners and mills holding short stock positions tried to grab the floating stocks being offered around Rs2,700 or slightly below this level, market source said.

Most of the leading ginners on the other hand are holding on to their unsold positions hoping a year-end upward push in prices owing to a short crop, they said. A section of spinners is also awaiting the release of arrival figures of phutti for the month ending March 15, as they will give a fair idea of the total crop, they said.

Meanwhile, according to them total foreign purchases by the spinners have touched the high mark of a million bales against which about 0.7m bales had already arrived.

Spinners are expected to import about 1.5m bales during the current season to make the local crop shortfall as their annual consumption figure is estimated at 12m bales plus.ficial spot rates were, therefore, steadily held at the weekend level but slightly below the rates at which fine lots were sold last week.

Ready offtake was light totalling about 1,000 bales from the central Sindh ginneries including 200 bales, Hingorja at Rs2,775, excluding 15 per cent sales tax.