18 April 2004	Sunday	27 Safar 1425

KARACHI, April 17: Cotton market finished the weekend session on a steady note as spinners remained active buyers around the current levels but some of the ginners holding contamination-free lots raised their asking prices.

After several trading sessions of low prices that too at spinners option, some of the ginners managed to sell their fine lots around Rs3,000 per maund, brokers said.

The recent rebound staged by the New York cotton futures has a positive impact on the local market as shaky ginners again relied on the falling stocks rather than the volatile world markets, they said.

"Strange are ways of the cotton trade as no one could precisely predict what is in store for the ginners or the spinners just the very next day", says a cotton analyst on the market behaviour during the last couple of sessions.

Ginners, notably holding stray unsold lots were a bit jittery after the fall of New York cotton futures below the benchmark price of 60 cents per lb and were inclined to indulge in panic-selling but the recovery in New York prices rescued them from the "agony of unloadings at the lowest rates", he said.

Spinners and mills were active buyers for the second day in a row despite reports of cancellation of some forward yarn deal with the foreign buyers done at much higher rates, which have a negative impact on the local prices owing to the prevailing glut.

"We have to keep wheels moving irrespective of the price changes both on the local and foreign markets", spinners said "long holding positions of yarn do add to production costs including bank interest rates".

Meanwhile, market sources said spinners intend to import about 1.5m bales of lint from various sources to make up the possible local crop shortfall and to honour forward export commitments for both yarn and cloth.

Unconfirmed reports claim about a million bales had already arrived in the godowns of spinners and mills and more consignments are in the pipeline, dealers said.

Unlike the previous sessions, New York cotton futures showed minor changes in the absence of leading speculative traders. The ruling May settlement posted a fresh rise of 0.59 cents at 61.99 cents per lb, while the forward July fell by 0.27 points at 62.36 cents per lb.

Official local spot rates were firmly held at the last levels for the second session in a row in line with an improvement in the ready section.

Ready offtake was modest totalling about 8,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH TYPE: 400 bales, Salehpat at Rs2,600, 400 bales and Gothki at Rs2,850.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,375 bales, Bagho Bahar at Rs2,885, 200 bales, Rajanpur at Rs2,800, 200 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,900 and 200 bales, at Rs3,000.