KARACHI, May 27: The cotton market on Thursday maintained bullish outlook as spinners were virtually out to grab the floating stock irrespective of higher asking prices by the ginners.

There was, however, no negative fallout of higher imports of lint up to the month of March, which soared to 1.322m bales, and more consignments are reported to be on their way from different sources, market sources said.

The lint import figure may touch a high mark of 1.5m bales plus as the spinners and mills are closing the current fiscal ending June 30, with record export sales.

Just at the heels of the overnight panic buying, the spinners and mills did not sit on the sidelines and lifted all the lots offered by the ginners at their asking prices, although details of some major deals were not immediately available here, brokers said.

The interesting feature was that owing to higher asking prices by the Punjab ginners, the spinners and mills opted for the central Sindh lint, which was available at much lower rates because of its short staple length.

Bulk of the business was finalized between the mills and the ginners mainly in the southern Punjab cotton belt where bulk of the unsold stocks is lying in ginners' godowns, they said.

"I don't think ginners may have an unsold stock of half a million bales in their godowns," one broker claim, adding "much of the physical business is currently being transacted both on ready and forward basis at ginners' option."

On Wednesday, some of the deals were done as higher as Rs3,300 per maund, excluding 15 per cent sales tax, while an average rate was around Rs3,200. Official spot rates were further raised by Rs25 to Rs3,100 per maund, but on the other hand New York cotton futures were marked down by 1.33 and 0.85 cents per lb at 62.35 and 60.20 cents for the ruling July and the new crop October, respectively.

Ready business was active as till late in the evening about 10,000 bales changed hands as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 400 bales, Khipro at Rs2,725; 600 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,825; 600 bales, Dadu at Rs2,900; 2,000 bales, Rohri also at Rs2,900; and 1,000 bales, Salhpat at Rs2,850.