KARACHI, May 18: The cotton market on Wednesday showed a firm trend followed by reports that some of the spinners and mills, which are not participating in the TCP weekly auctions, are seeking supplies from the open market. As a result, after several lean sessions, official spot rates were revised upward by Rs25 per maund apparently on the assumption that some of the ginners in the upper Sindh and southern Punjab cotton belts have still modest unsold stocks of fine lots and are holding them to sell at higher prices, brokers said.

A deal of 1,000 bales on Karachi delivery basis was finalized at Rs2,275 per maund, which is in line with an average rate being offered by the TCP in its weekly sales, they said. “Most of the ginners may have exhausted their stocks owing to the recent sluggishness and the perception that the spinners will opt for the TCP stock rather than theirs,” said a cotton analyst. “But those ginners who have the holding capacity and sound financial positions held on to their modest unsold positions.”

He predicts the spinners will opt, though temporarily, for the ginner stocks and may offer higher rate if the ginners indicate total number of bales they still hold on to. During its final crop figure reports, the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association has put the unsold figure at 0.326m bales on April 15, but after there were no official or unofficial reports about it, he said.

The situation is still unclear about the unsold stocks, but Wednesday’s upward revision of prices indicates that the ginners are also in the game along with the TCP, though on a modest scale.

Meanwhile, leading spinners and mills are busy to bid for the May 21 auction of the TCP for 67,000 bales of both fine and medium staple lots. It would be the third weekly sales, the other two were held on May 7 and 14, involving sales of 0.2m bales to both foreign and local buyers.

Official spot rates were raised to Rs2,225 per maund, although in the ready section some of the deals were done depending on quality. New York cotton futures also staged a smart recovery after a couple of lean sessions on strong speculative buying at lower rates.

Ready offtake was light totalling about 2,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals: 1,000 bales of fine variety (Karachi delivery) at Rs2,275; and 400 bales of some other stations at Rs2,065.