13 July 2004	Tuesday	24 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 12: Trading on the cotton market on Monday resumed on a cheerless note as spinners and mills kept to the sidelines owing to prevailing turmoil in the backdrop of steep decline in world cotton yarn prices.

Official spot rates were further lowered by Rs25 per maund but spinners remained conspicuous by their absence as they were worried over the falling yarn market and a virtual standoff on the export front.

Although, exact amount of the unsold stocks lying with the ginners is not known officially but market sources put it around 0.3m bales, which are the victim of slack demand and falling world prices rather than any other adverse news, dealers said.

Unconfirmed reports say some of the traditional yarn importers of Pakistan yarn are claimed to have backed out from the commitments made for the last quarter of the current fiscal ended June 30, after the price fall, market sources said.

"Stock of cotton yarn in the absence of fresh export orders and the prevailing standoff on the previous signed firm orders is piling and has put spinners in an awkward position", they said.

Most of the spinners and mills had, during the last couple of months, made an emergency imports of lint from various sources on an average price of about 60 cents per lb to make up the local crop shortfall, they said but in the meantime world prices fell to 15 years low to around 47 cents per lb on speculative selling triggered by reports of global production surplus of 3m bales.

Floor brokers said indications are that the world textile market may remain depressed during the current season as the negative impact of the surplus could influence the new crop prices on the lower side.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the cotton belt indicate that the conditions of the new crop is satisfactory as the recent spell of monsoon rain has accelerated the growth of tender plants.

Picking operations of phutti in lower Sindh cotton belt are said to have gathered momentum as the growers are maintaining regular weekly and fortnightly schedule because of rain. Ready off-take was light as till late in the evening a deal of 200 bales, from a Nawabshah ginnery at Rs2,650 was reported by a leading broker, Naseem Usman.