KARACHI, Sept 14: Cotton market on Tuesday resisted fresh decline as prices were firmly held at the overnight levels amid an actively traded session.
Spinners appear to be in a bit hurry to lift as much lint as they can at the current levels fearing a big push to prices after the Trading Corporation of Pakistan enters the market, brokers said.
Reports that the export of textiles during the last month recorded an impressive rise of about 24 per cent, big chunk of which went to the credit of cotton yarn is well-reflected in strong mill buying for the last couple of sessions, they said
"Prices may not rise from the current levels as the world production of cotton is much bigger than the annual consumption figure of the entire textile world despite the fact that some of the countries may enhance its intake depending on the export orders", says a leading ginner.
The other supporting factor, which is fuelling the mill buying was reports of a grand turnaround staged by the New York cotton futures followed by strong speculative buying, they said.
New York cotton futures may not be able to sustain the current price flare-up owing to a record production of well over 20m bales in the US alone followed by some other major producers, snap rally could boost underlying sentiments else where, they added.
The daily big-lot business reflects that the current rates are in line with the spinners' forward sales of cotton yarn to traditional importers and some new ones in the south Asia.
Meanwhile, reports coming from the southern Punjab cotton belt indicate that picking operations are in full swing and some more ginneries have resumed their commercial operations.
Official spot rates were, therefore, held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,250 although some of the deals were done above them. New York cotton futures on the other hand recovered sharply from the previous lows and were quoted higher by 1.80 and 1.67 cents at 53.05 and 52.39 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the forward December settlements respectively.
Ready off-take was active till late in the evening about 12,000 bales, both in Sindh and Punjab varieties changed hands as under:
SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,275, 1,200 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,300, 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,250 to Rs2,275, 1,000 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,225 to Rs2,250, 400 bales, Nayabad at Rs2,275, and 1,000 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,275 to Rs2,300.
PUNJAB VARIETY: 400 bales, Gojra at Rs2,275 to Rs2,290, 400 bales, Muridwala at Rs2,300, 1,000 bales, Burewala at Rs2,300, 1,000 bales, each Burewala, Chichawatni, Jahania and Mina Channu at Rs2,275 to Rs2,300.
The following are Tuesday's new crop Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) official spot rates for local dealings in Pak rupees for base grade 3 staple length 1-1/32" micronair value between 3.8 to 4.9 NCL.
