KARACHI, Sept 24: The cotton market closed the week on Saturday on a firm note as ginners raised their asking prices in sympathy with fixing made by growers for their phutti (seed cotton) at higher rates.

Most of the deals, both in Sindh and Punjab lint, were finalized higher by Rs25 to Rs50 per maund depending on the quality as the spinners and mills remained active buyers around the day’s higher rate of Rs2,200 per maund.

The interesting feature was that selling prices of both the Sindh and Punjab varieties were traded at par, reflecting the same quality standard and staple length. Generally, the latter was sold at a premium over the former.

Local prices are following the local trend of supply and demand, ignoring the New York cotton futures, which stayed volatile despite fears of crop losses in the second hurricane.

Unlike the previous sessions the growers seem to have been a bit encouraged by the possible re-entry of the TCP in the cotton trade as directed by the government to forestall further fall in phutti prices, brokers said.

Bulk of the unfixed phutti lying in ginneries of both central Sindh and Punjab cotton belts was fixed well above the official support price of Rs975 per 40 kg, they said.

Brokers said that most of the ginners in the upper Sindh and southern Punjab cotton belts planned to resume new season possibly in the second week of the next month, as picking operations of phutti had started on a modest scale in some of the areas.

Meanwhile, the growers have accelerated the pace of arrivals of phutti into the ginneries as the current prices are competitive enough for their parity levels. Most of the leading and progressive growers have made it a point not hold on the newly picked phutti until the size of the crop is clear, market sources said.

According to official import figures, the spinners have imported 0.275m bales of fine type long staple lint from various sources during the month of May, 2005 for blending purposes but it in no way suggests about the size of the new crop, they said.

Although most of the deals in the ready section were done above them, official spot rates did not show any change for the fourth session in a row.

New York cotton futures on the other hand declined by 0.85 and 0.92 cents per lb at 49.15 and 51.05 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December settlements, respectively.

Ready business was active as till late in the evening about 8,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH VARIETY: 2,000 bales, Nawabshah, 200 bales each Buchari and Sakrand at Rs2,200; 1,200 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,175; 400 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,165 to Rs2,175; 600 bales, Mirpurkhas and 200 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,150.