KARACHI, Feb 21: Cotton prices on Tuesday showed a modest rise as spinners and mills played safe in an apparent effort to keep prices within the current levels. Some of the leading spinner groups were, however, in the market and indulged in big-lot business but tried to keep a judicious balance between the supply and demand, brokers said.

“Together with unsold stocks of 2m bales with the ginners and half a million bales with the TCP, leading spinners appeared to be little worried over the future supplies and are keeping a low-key as daily buyers”, they said.

Some of them had already covered their forward positions earlier in the seasons around Rs2,300, although their weaker links are a bit worried over the future supplies and prices, they added.

But the market’s current stance reflects prices have almost been stabilized below Rs2,600 per maund, which apparently fall in line with the export parity level of spinners and mills.

Falling ready daily mill off-take reflects that both ginners and spinners have taken rigid positions about the future price outlook and are not inclined to indulge in panic selling or buying at this stage for obvious reasons.

Floor brokers said some of the leading private exporters were active after world prices rose above 55 cents per lb and have registered fresh export contracts with the Export Promotion Bureau totalling 0.212m bales up to Feb 15, against which they have already physically shipped 0.196m bales, official figures indicate.

But according to the figures spinners did not make any fresh imports and the last figure was 0.132m bales imported by various mills during September last year.

Official spot rates for average quality of lint were revised upward by Rs5 to Rs2,550 but in the ready section most of the deals were done well above them.

Ready business was light, the following being some of the deals, which gone through on Tuesday: 4,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,575 to Rs2,600 and 1,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,575.