KARACHI, Jan 30: Cotton prices on Monday remained stable around the weekend levels but spinners and mills were conspicuous by their absence despite the fact that they still have to go a long way to cover their annual consumption needs.

Floor brokers said they may be awaiting the release of fortnightly arrival figures up to Jan 31, which in their opinion would give a fair idea of the total crop.

As a result, ready off-take by them has fallen to a low ebb sending panic signals among the ginners who still hold long unsold positions hoping further increase in prices, they said.

“A battle of wits is on between the ginners and spinners apparently each one awaiting blinking by the other contender,” they said adding: “But in the final analysis the former have an edge over the latter.”

But some leading spinners attributed the fall in their demand to export problems and higher local inventories. ”Once the export shipments get normal, they will signal the resumption of strong mill buying.”

There is also a perception shared by most spinners that TCP could come to their aid if the final crop figure is too short and below the stipulated revised target of 12m bales plus from 15.5m bales, they said.

According to official sources, TCP still has an unsold stock of half a million bales from the previous crop as buffer stock to meet any crop shortfall.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the yarn market show an improvement in local prices and amid active off-take by the ancillary industry, brokers said adding: “Spinners, however, claim liquidity problems owing to larger unsold stocks.”

Official spot rates were quoted unchanged at the weekend levels but stray business reported was modestly higher than them.

Ready business was light totalling about 5,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals: 1,600 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,525 and 800 bales, Upper Sindh at Rs2,550.