KARACHI, April 14: Cotton prices on Thursday remained stable around the previous levels despite the fact that spinners and mills again kept to the sidelines for most of the time. “Price ideas of sellers and buyers are poles apart, which in turn have a negative impact on the ready offtake despite reports of pressure on supplies,” brokers said.
Some of the leading spinner groups are seeking supplies of fine lots between Rs2,250 and Rs2,300 per maund but ginners are said to be seeking sellers at around Rs2,350. What worried them most are unsold stocks of low-mic lint and in the absence of private sector, no one including the open-end mills are inclined to buy them even at the lower rates.
According to official figures, the private sector exporters had purchased, up to March 7, 0.661m bales of both old and new crop against which they had so far physically shipped 0.232m bales.
While the unorganized sector, which lifts about half a million bales each year, is out of the market for the last couple of weeks, the absence of exporters allowed them to have a second thought “how to dispose of about 0.1m bales of inferior stuff,” brokers said.
They said until the final arrival and unsold figures, due during the next couple of days possibly by the end of this week, are released speculation about the supply and demand would dominate trading.
Meanwhile, steep decline in New York cotton futures on speculative selling in the absence of matching buying also worried the local ginners, fearing sympathetic negative impact on the price line here.
New York cotton futures on Wednesday fell by 1.78 and 1.90 cents per lb at 51.22 and 52.82 cents for both the ruling May and the distant July contracts, respectively.
But on the other hand there was no change in the official spot rates, which were firmly held at Rs2,225 per maund.
Ready offtake was modest totalling 1,400 bales of fine variety from the upper Sindh ginneries at Rs2,250 to Rs2,300 per maund.
