April 7, 2006	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1427

KARACHI, April 6: Cotton prices on Thursday revised upward by Rs25 per maund after ginners raised their asking prices in line with New York cotton futures and pressure on local supplies.

Floor brokers said mills and spinners had been playing hide-and-seek with the ginners for the last about two months, entering and leaving the market at will keeping ginners at their toes all the time to keep prices around their export parity levels.

“After a long wait, ginners now appeared to be in the driving seat and could set the market price trend exploiting the idea of lower unsold stock, and in the coming weeks may quote their selling prices,” they said.

But the spinners say the unsold stocks of lint held by the TCP could well prove to be a price stabilizing factor checking the tendency of speculative increase.

However, in physical trading ginners future perceptions appear to be correct, as they sold some big lots well above the official spot rates, the highest being Rs2.475 per maund.

“Sugar, pulses and some other essential items’ prices are rising why not of lint,” a broker jokingly said while commenting on the general price flare-up of both essentials and industrial raw materials “The current rise in lint prices may well be a prelude of further increases in the sessions to come.”

Meanwhile, private sector exporters have registered fresh forward deals for about 24,000 bales with foreign buyers, raising the total to 0.265m bales up to March 31, 2006.

After several lean sessions, official spot rates were raised by Rs25 at Rs2,425 per maund of an average quality in line with the feedback from the ready market where active dealings are being witnessed for the last couple of sessions.

New York cotton futures also showed good gains of 1.15 and 0.97 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the forward July contracts at 53.96 and 55.64 cents, respectively.

Ready offtake was modest as about 10,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the notable deals: 5,000 bales from upper Sindh ginneries at Rs2,450; and 1,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,475.