KARACHI, Jan 3: Trading on the cotton market on Tuesday failed to pick up to a daily normal level despite the fact that some of the ginners have lowered their selling prices.

Fortnightly arrival figures for Dec 31, 2005 at 10.266m bales were on the lower side of the comparable total of the last year, but indications are that the reduced target of 12m bales is expected to be achieved, says a leading cotton analyst.

Mills have so far purchased 8.517m bales, leaving an unsold stock of 2.670m bales, slightly below the previous fortnight.

The analyst said that larger unsold stocks lying with the ginners could work against both sides of the market during the post-Eid holiday sessions. On the one hand they could trigger panic selling by the ginners and trigger active buying by the spinners on the other in the backdrop of lower crop estimates.

Floor brokers said that ginners holding some unsold stocks of inferior lots were trying to clear the backlog and lowered prices by Rs10 to Rs30 per maund to attract spinners.

A couple of lots changed hands as some of the spinners and mills needed them for blending purposes or to spin lower counts of cotton yarn purchased them but the quantity in trade was light, they said.

Fine lots both from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab ginneries were, however, sold around or above Rs2,400 per maund as ginners entertaining ideas of higher prices held on to their unsold stocks, some others said.

Ready off-take was, therefore, remained at the lowest level for a combination of reasons including delivery problems, higher freight rates and higher asking prices.

Official spot rates were held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,375 per maund amid light trading.

Ready business was modest totalling about 6,000 bales as under: 2,000 bales, Rohri at Rs2,410, 2,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,400, 1,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,390 and 1,200 bales, Rajanpur at Rs2,370.