26 September 2004	Sunday	10 Shaban 1425

KARACHI, Sept 25: Cotton prices on Saturday eased from the recent higher levels as ginners continued to unload long positions in an apparent panic amid strong whispering against the officially fixed lower lint rates.

An idea of panic selling by the ginners may well be had from the fact that they in unison sold about 60,000 bales overnight to the willing spinners and mills, while exporters stayed on the sidelines owing to bearish advice from the New York cotton market, brokers said.

Massive mill buying reflects that no one among them is inclined to take even a calculated risk as they did last season amid reports of a higher crop and lifted all the lots offered by the ginners. "A huge quantity of 60,000 bales plus in a single session indicated spinners' scramble to grab the floating stock".

Bulk of the business was finalized between Rs2,050 and Rs2,125 depending on the quality of lint as compared to official price of Rs2,159 per maund. Phutti prices also fell below the support price of Rs925 to as low as Rs880 per 40 kg in the Sindh cotton belt.

It is interesting to note that ginners are willing to sell their stocks at much lower rates to the spinners and mills rather to go for the TCP option, which is offering much higher rates, they said.

"Not a single ginner is inclined to deal with the TCP because of procedural delays in payments as it pretty difficult for ginners to meet its standard export specifications", says a leading cotton analyst "most of them prefer to deal with spinners and mills on cash basis".

Floor brokers said the next couple of sessions could be very crucial for the cotton trade, notably for ginners and growers as they may remain at the receiving-end because of higher crop estimates.

Reports from the leading cotton producing countries are also bearish as most of them are going to harvest higher crop under the lead of the US and China and that could contain any increase in world prices, they said.

New York cotton futures on Friday finished lower by 1.61 and 1.80 cents at 49.40 and 47.02 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements respectively. But local official spot rates were further upped by Rs15 at Rs2,090, although bulk of the business in the ready section was done below it.

Ready off-take was fairly brisk as together with overnight deals about 60,000 bales changed hands between Rs2,100 to Rs2,125 per maund for the Punjab type.

The following deals were reported in the Sindh variety late on Saturday evening: 200 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,100, 200 bales at Rs2,125, 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,100, 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,050 to Rs2,075, 400 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,025 and 400 bales, Tando Allahyar at Rs2,000.