KARACHI, March 25: Cotton prices on the Karachi Cotton Exchange on Saturday rose by Rs25 as some of the leading spinners and mills indulged in big-lot business to grab the floating stock of quality lint. Floor brokers said falling unsold stocks with the ginners and pressure of supply of fine lots forced spinners to raise their asking prices by Rs25 per maund. The other aiding factor was fresh rebound staged by the New York cotton futures above 50 cents per lb, which made imports of fresh stocks expensive for spinners and mills as compared to their export parity rates for cotton yarn and cloth, they said. “I foresee a price war between the spinners and mills in the coming weeks as fears of short supply could allow ginners to raise further their asking prices”, one dealers said.
However, some others said the current heating up of the market may fade after a maiden consignment of imported stuff arrives and its echoes were heard in the market.
“Whether or not TCP, which sends no official signals about the sale of its fine lot stocks, will come to the aid of hard-pressed spinners and mills needing more lint at competitive rates”, a leading spinner said.
There is loud whispering in the market that the government has already committed to sell a part of the total stocks held by the TCP to China on government-to-government level, which explains absence of official word on the issue.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said unsold stocks have fallen to 0.4m bales and as ginneries have closed the season, there is no possibility of any further significant increase in the size of total crop.
Most of the deals were quality-based and that is perhaps there is a difference of Rs100 per maund in the prices of fine and inferior stuff, dealers said.
Ready off-take was active totalling 15,000 bales, following being some of the notable deals: 5,700 bales, Ahmedpur East and some other stations at Rs2,350, 400 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,225 and 2,000 bales, Gothki Dharki and Mirpur Mathelo at Rs2,250 to Rs2,325.
