04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 3: The cotton market finished the weekend session on an uncertain note as ginners could not precisely decide how to operate amid falling mill demand.

However, weaker link among them seem to be in no mood to be part of the prevailing standoff between the "big ones on both sides of the divide" and tried to get out of the market after further lowering their asking prices, brokers said.

Fine types, including contamination-free lots from the southern Punjab cotton belt, which were being sold around Rs3,050 per maund a couple of weeks earlier, are now available at Rs2,700 to Rs2,800 per maund, they said.

A fall of Rs200 to Rs350 per maund during the post-budget sessions reflects the state of the cotton trade and the allied problems for the ginners.

Growers had been the chief beneficiary of the short crop, while the spinners bailed themselves out of the impasse after making massive imports during the last couple of months, totalling about 2.2m bales.

"The panic among the ginners who still hold bulk of the unsold stock reflects that their holding capacity is fading out for a number of reasons, including the sharp fall in New York cotton futures and reports of higher world production surplus," market sources aid.

Leading ginners have trying to hold the price line during the post-budget sessions but the "tactical absence of spinners and mills seems to have outwitted them," they said.

According to details of ready offtake, the spinners are active buyers for the quality lint around or below Rs2,800 per maund.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the lower Sindh ginneries indicate that picking operations in some of the areas have been suspended as the cotton fields are still wet owing to recent rain.

But phutti arrivals into the ginneries from other areas is steady, but the ginners are not inclined to resume operations before Aug 15, as decided by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association a couple of weeks earlier.

New York cotton futures recovered from the recent lows and were quoted higher by 0.60 cents each for both the matured July and new crop October settlements at 47.25 and 49.47 cents per lb.

But the local official rates were held unchanged, although in the ready section prices were lower at which stray business was reported.

The following are some of the deals, which went through on Saturday evening:

SINDH TYPE: 400 bales, Dadu at Rs2,340; and 200 bales Shahpur Chakkar at Rs2,325.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 2,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,700; 1,000 bales, Multan at Rs2,800; and 100 bales, Burewala at Rs2,825.