KARACHI, Feb 15: Cotton prices on Tuesday steadily rose from the previous levels as ginners further raised their asking prices for fine lots amid reports of short supply.

Some big lots both from the upper Sindh cotton belt were traded as higher as Rs2,250-2,300 per maund as leading spinner groups and mills were not inclined to miss them as they badly need fine quality lint to cover their forward sales of higher counts of cotton yarn, brokers said.

"Strong rumours of pressure on supplies during the next couple of months appear to be the chief motivating factor behind the panic mill buying", they said, adding "the current uncertainty over the supply position will persist until the arrival figure of phutti for the fortnight ending Feb 15, are released".

Both the unsold stocks of lint lying with the ginners and arrival figures due during the next couple of sessions are claimed to be well below the earlier estimates and could significantly affect the existing trading pattern, market sources said.

Bulk of the cotton has already arrived in the ginneries by the middle of the last month and the current figure may not change the total crop outlook, which at best could touch the high mark of 14.5m bales, not 15m bales as earlier estimated.

"What worry spinners and mills is the fact that bulk of the fine lots, 2.5m bales are lying in the TCP godowns", they said "both the TCP and the government is silent on the issue whether or not spinners will be allowed to participate in the international tenders".

Indications are that textile sector may need 13m bales plus to meet their annual consumption demand and most of them appear to be pretty short of their intake of fine lots, they said.

It is in this background that ginners are not inclined to lower their asking prices as they have a fair idea about the future supplies and demand. Official spot rates were, therefore, again firmly held at the last levels for average quality but fine lots were sold at higher rates.

New York cotton futures on the other hand finished with an extended gain, up by 0.61 and 0.28 cents per lb for both the ruling March and the distant May contracts at 45.56 and 46.47 cents respectively.

Ready off-take was modest as till late in the evening about 10,000 bales changed hands as under: 1,400 bales, Sarhari at Rs2,100-2,150, 500 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,100, 3,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,225-2,250, and 1,800 bales, Liaquatpur at Rs2,180.