KARACHI, Dec 26: Trading on the cotton market on Monday resumed on quiet note as both ginners and spinners kept to the sidelines most of the time owing to delivery problems because of coming Eid holidays.

Floor brokers said spinners and mills had also curtailed their daily off-take as cargo haulers had raised their freight rates from the upcountry trading centres as most of them were busy in transporting sacrificial animals to the major cities including Karachi.

“The perception that in the absence of prompt means of transport it is pretty risky to make further commitments as anything about the rates could happen during the log weekend”, they said.

Spinners said higher freight rates add to their already production costs and they are trying to remain competitive on the world textile markets. The prevailing status quo in buying and selling is expected to prevail in the coming sessions also, but possibility of some big deals on local delivery basis are, however, not ruled out, they said.

The other negative factor was year-end closing as some of the leading spinners and mills have decided to resume normal buying operations during the post-Eid holiday sessions, some others said.

“Ginners who are holding long unsold positions are a bit worried over the developing situation on the ready front but are not inclined to lower their asking prices at this stage”, they added.

However, despite slow physical activity, prices showed firm trend as ginners held on to their positions followed by predictions of further increase in prices based on lower crop, they added.

Meanwhile, according to official figures, mills consumption of lint since last Aug to June 5, 2005 totalled 11.384m bales and they may need another half a million bales to see the year through.

Official spot rates were, therefore, again held unchanged at the last week’s level of Rs2,375, while some of the deals were done well above them.

Ready off-take fell to about 5,000 bales as under: 2,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,410 to Rs2,425 and 200 bales, Shujabad at Rs2,400.