19 March 2004	Friday	27 Muharram 1425

KARACHI, March 18: The cotton market on Thursday stayed firm as both spinners and mills remained active buyers at the current levels as they fell in line with their export parity levels.

In physical trading, price differentials were abnormal depending on quality of lint in trade. While some of the fine lots were sold at as higher as Rs3,100, while low-mic lint was available on average at Rs2,700 per maund, dealers said.

It is interesting to note that both the ginners and the spinners have readjusted their price perceptions to the prevailing objective conditions both on the local and foreign fronts, which in turn allowed normal trading activity on the market.

"But what seems to have worried ginners most and blunted their holding capacity was highly volatile price movements on the New York cotton futures and their negative fall-out over the world prices," says a leading broker. "Ginners who were inclined to hold on to their unsold positions for another month or so got panicky and lowered their asking prices."

The fears that spinners and mills will opt for further imports after the New York cotton prices fell further was said to be another reason behind the selling by the ginners, he added.

For the last three sessions active business is being transacted daily as price ideas of both the sellers and the buyers seem to find a meeting ground but some ginners still claim they are selling at a discount.

Market sources said indications were that spinners and mills try to grab the floating stock at the current prices as no one was sure how the New York cotton futures will behave even the very next day.

They said a good number of fine lots were still lying with the leading ginners, which spinners needed to produce higher counts of cotton yarn and there were chances of a rebound depending the situation on the world markets.

The official arrival figures of phutti released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, up to March 15, at 9.673m bales, surpassed the last year's total by a modest margin but are expected to show sharp increase after the final figures are announced.

The unsold stock of 1.418m bales lying with the ginners is on the lower side and may cause another price flare-up during the next couple of weeks, dealers said. There was no change in the official spot rates but in ready section fine lots were sold well above them.

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

SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales each, K-68, Yaru Lund and Rohri at Rs3,000; 800 bales, Gothki at Rs3,000; and 500 bales, Shahpur Chakkar at Rs2,750.