09 March 2005	Wednesday	27 Muharram 1426

KARACHI, March 8: Trading on the cotton market on Tuesday remained insipid as both leading spinners and mills kept to the sidelines most of the time, sending nervous signals among the ginners notably to those who still hold long unsold positions.

Spot rates were further lowered by Rs25 for the second day in a row but spinners stayed away amid market talk that prices could ease further from the current levels if the mills remained conspicuous by their absence, brokers said.

"The talk of forward deals of about million bales of lint from various countries to make an expected local supply gap may be one of the reasons behind the absence of spinners", they said. But others say some of the shipments of foreign lint meant for March delivery may reach here soon which is one of the major causes behind their withdrawal from the market.

According to shipment schedules bulk of the imported stuff is expected to reach here by the end of June as by the middle of July new crop from the lower Sindh cotton belt will be available though on modest scale. But ginners are not worried over the developing situation on the local cotton front and are steadily holding on to their unsold stocks hoping a fresh rise in price.

"It is not that difficult to sell a million bales," says a leading ginner "bulk of the lint is already in mills or TCP godowns and our unsold stocks could hardly be market factor both ways". But spinners seemed to have gone for making forward purchases despite the fact that the local crop was not that short, he said and added "they should have sought government help for partial supplies from the TCP, which holds a stock of 2.5m bales of fine lots around Rs2,159 per 40 kg.

"I don't think any major rise in world prices despite the fact that China is short of 14.5m bales and Pakistan has already made forward deals for a million bales", a leading private sector exporter said.

It was perhaps in this background that New York cotton futures were marked down by 1.22 cents per lb owing to rolling of forward positions from the matured March to the distant May. It ended at 49.53 cents, while the ruling May fell by 0.79 cents at 50.44 cents per lb.

Ready off-take was light and totalled only 2,000 bales, the following being some of the confirmed deals: 300 bales, Sultanabad at Rs2,200 and 200 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,150.