KARACHI, Sept 7: After an initial fall, the cotton market on Tuesday resisted a fresh decline followed by strong mill buying at falling prices amid active trading.

Both spinners and mills were not inclined to take even a technical breather and continued to lift all the lots offered by ginners below Rs2,300 per maund, which the spinners claim a fall in line with their export parity levels.

Trading on the cotton market, however, resumed on an easy note what the dealers called a spill over of the overnight easiness, and as a result some of the deals were finalized at around Rs2,175 per maund.

But late in the evening, the ginners raised their asking prices followed by reports of a considerable decline in the arrivals of phutti as some of the leading growers held back their stocks of phutti to boost prices, the dealers said.

However, the interesting feature was that the ginners are not inclined to take even a calculated risk at this stage and are in a mood to hold on to their Stocks of lint, they said, adding that was perhaps why ready offtake was picking up each day.

The falling unsold stocks with the ginners also reflect that both are operating in an uncertain future price outlook in the backdrop of highly volatile performance being given by the New York cotton futures for the last couple of weeks, says a leading broker.

But one thing appears certain that if the world's current crop estimates are correct, there is a remote possibility of any big turnaround in the prices in near futures despite the fact that New York cotton futures had risen by about eight cents during the last two weeks from 42 to 50 cents per lb for the ruling October settlement, he adds.

Official spot rates were revised downward in line with Monday's levels, but in the ready section, the prices showed a considerable improvement as some of the deals were done at Rs2,300. Ready off take was active as till late in the evening about 10,000 bales changed hands as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Sultanabad at Rs2,175 to Rs2,200; 500 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,275; 500 bales, Sakrand at Rs2,275; 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,275 to Rs2,300; and 1,000 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,275.