31 October 2004	Sunday	16 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 30: Cotton prices on Saturday eased by another Rs25 per maund as spinners slowed down their daily off-take followed by unconfirmed reports of virus attack in some areas of the Punjab cotton belt. Together with the overnight decline of Rs25, the total during the two sessions comes to Rs50. While the fine type were quoted around Rs2,025 on the higher side and Rs1,850 per maund on lower side as compared to overnight's Rs1,950-2,050.

"The rumours of a pest attack appear to have been spread by some vested interests as the standing cotton crop has already weathered all the storms and is out of danger of any virus attack", some cotton analysts believe.

Prices of lint should have risen instead of falling followed by rumours of a virus attack as any pest attack not only damages the quality of lint but also causes a substantial decline in production owing to various reasons related to boll-opening, they said.

The picking operations are expected to be completed by the next couple of week as growers are in a hurry to vacate the fields for wheat sowing, they said.

During the current week lint prices have risen to Rs2,100 per maund owing to an aggressive buying by the TCP as a second buyer and there were some fears among the spinners and mills about further increase in rates if there is a pressure on supplies of fine lots, brokers said adding "hence rumours about the quality damage".

They said in similar crop estimates as the prevailing one, various interests try to keep prices within their parity levels, which follows by rumour mongering about the pest attack and fall in crop estimate, they added.

Official spot rates were, therefore, lowered by Rs25 per maund in line with the ready deals at Rs2,015 and they may be further revised downward on Monday.

New York cotton futures on the other hand showed divergent trend. While the ruling December suffered a fresh fall of 0.33 cents and the distant March rose by 0.30 cents at 44.98 and 44.97 cents per lb respectively.

Ready off-take was relatively slow as a section of leading ginners held on to their positions instead of lowering their asking prices. The following are some of the deals finalized late on Friday night all in Punjab variety: 1,000 bales, Alipur at Rs2,005 to Rs2,050, 1,800 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,050, 1,000 bales, Nurpur at Rs2,075, 1,000 bales, Mehmoodabad, Chani Goth, and Khanewal at Rs2,050, 600 bales, Nurpur at Rs2,060, 600 bales, Uch Sharif at Rs2,075, and 600 bales at Rs2,050 and 400 bales, Jehania at Rs2,050.