March 15, 2006	Wednesday	Safar 14, 1427

KARACHI, March 14: Cotton market on Tuesday showed quietly steady trend as official spot rates were firmly held at the overnight levels in the absence of strong mill demand.

But in physical trading much of the activity remained confined to low-mic lots from the central Sindh cotton belt but most of the deals both in Sindh and Punjab varieties were finalized below Rs2,500 per maund, dealers said.

As the tender date of March 16, for the TCP’s 50,000 bales is drawing nearer spinners prefer to keep to the sidelines rather than indulging in big deals, they said.

Market sources said that bulk of the bales on sale may be lifted by the local spinners as foreign buyers may not be in a position to match their offers with those of the local ones for freight reasons and other aiding factors to the locals.

The successful completion of the current tender may follow another as TCP plans to sell about 0.250m bales out of the total half a million bales to lower its stake in unsold stocks, they said.

But some others said the lower New York cotton futures price may have an adverse impact on the TCP’s local sales as some of the buyers may not opt for them owing to quality reasons.

However, one thing is clear that the TCP tender has taken steam out of the local market as both spinners and mills are eyeing the TCP lint rather than from the ginners.

It was perhaps in this background that there was no change in the official spot rates, although some of the deals in the ready section were done below them depending on quality.

New York cotton futures on the other hand fell further by 0.87 and 0.85 cents for both the ruling May and the newcomer July settlements at 54.24 and 55.47 cents per lb respectively.

Ready off-take was modest totalling about 2,000 bales, the following being some of the important deals: 1,100 bales, Liaquatpur at Rs2,425, 200 bales, Rahimyar Khan also at this rate, 200 bales, Sarhari at Rs2,450 and 200 bales, at Rs2,400.