KARACHI, June 25: Cotton market closed the weekend session on a quietly steady note but physical business remained dull despite reports of modest unsold stock was available with some of the leading ginners.

But ginners from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab cotton belt claimed that they had already exhausted their stocks and were waiting for the new crop.

“Prices of lint have already touched the seasonal peak and there was no point to hold on to meagre unsold positions,” one ginner said “We are living with the empty godowns leaving the TCP the lone player in the game”.

But market sources said some of the ginners still held modest unsold stocks and may sell them well before the new crop from the lower Sindh cotton belt arrives on the market.

However, most of the ginners have sold the stocks of inferior lots to mills who need it for blending purposes and private sector exporters at the lower rates, dealers said.

Some of the leading spinners who had purchased surplus stocks at the lower levels early in the season were also selling in part above Rs2,400 to those spinners and mills who still need supplies to see the year through, they said.

Meanwhile, according to official figures, the private sector exporters up to May 7 have registered 0.731m bales with the Export Promotion Bureau against which physical shipments of 0.434m bales had already been made to various countries.

Latest export figures were not available but exporters claimed that they had already met the physical shipment demands of the importers before the end of the current fiscal on June 30.

Whether or not the local price line is influenced by the higher New York cotton futures is not known, it may have some relevance to weekly lint auctions of TCP in which foreign buyers also take part. The lint auction of the TCP is on June 27.

New York cotton futures on Friday were quoted higher by 1.21 cents and 0.48 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the matured July settlements at 53.15 and 50.13 cent respectively.

That will mean the reference price of TCP for the foreign bidder could be fixed around 48 cents instead of 44 cent per lb during the last auction.

The official spot rates were on the other hand were firmly held at the previous level at Rs2,275 per maund in the absence of any feedback from the ready market.

According to KCA report, no physical business was reported in the ready section in the absence of selling offers by the ginners.