08 January 2005	Saturday	26 Ziqa'ad 1425

KARACHI, Jan 7: Physical trading on the cotton market on Friday showed a modest fall partly because of higher asking prices by the ginners and partly to a short Friday session.

Floor brokers said major thrust of spinners remained confined to fine lots from the upper Sindh ginneries as they in unison tried to lift all the unsold stocks lying with the ginners between Rs2000 to Rs2,050 per maund.

But ginners raised their asking prices to Rs2,075 to Rs2,100 per maund in an effort that spinners and mills will oblige them as they have still to go a long way to cover their forward positions against foreign sale, they said. However, spinners withdrew to the sidelines rather than pushing prices further higher as they have to operate within their export parity levels.

"I think ginners asking prices for fine lots could surpass the current being offered by the TCP," predicts a cotton specialist adding that "the world markets are expected to heat up during the next couple of months as leading buyers have started new year buying and the local market may not be an exception".

He said ginners have a fair idea of the mill demand in the backdrop of a massive expansion and resumption of commercial operations by a dozen sick mills and they put the consumption figures 13m bales plus in addition to use of polyester fibre for blended yarn and cloth.

That is perhaps why ginners are not in a hurry to get out of the market and are holding on confidently to their unsold stocks after having renewed overdraft limit for the next six months up to June 30, 2005.

Meanwhile, the TCP has announced that it has made contracts up to Jan 7, totalling 2.541m bales, out of which 1.319m bales has arrived in its godowns. Official spot rates were, therefore, firmly held at the overnight level of Rs1,925 per maund although most of the deals were done above them.

New York cotton futures showed a fresh modest increase in both the March and the May contracts at 45.81 and 46.50 cents per lb, up 0.19 and 0.34 cents respectively. Ready off-take was light totalling about 10,000 bales as under:

SINDH TYPE: 3,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,050 to Rs2,075, 400 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs1,700 and 500 bales, Shahdadpur at RS1,750.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs1,980 to Rs2,000, 1,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,000, and 200 bales, Muridwala at Rs2,025.