April 20, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21, 1427

KARACHI, April 19: Trading on the cotton market on Wednesday failed to pick up for the second session in a row as spinners and mills awaited announcement from the TCP about their bids against the sale of 30,000 bales.

The TCP price committee has accepted some of the offers from the local mills, while others have been advised to match their benchmark prices, brokers said.

The normal trading in the market is expected to be resumed possibly by Thursday in the backdrop of lower unsold stocks of 0.988m bales lying with the ginners, they said.

But reports coming from the southern Punjab cotton belt, where bulk of the unsold stocks are held, indicate that Punjab spinners have resumed normal covering operations and lifting all the lots being offered below Rs2,500 per maund, they added.

Although some of the spinners and mills are still eyeing the unsold stock of about 0.200m bales held by the TCP and are awaiting its next tender but their weaker links have now become active and are said to be buyers around the prevailing prices.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the major cotton growing areas including upper Sindh and southern and central Punjab said that the growers were preparing land to resume sowing new crop from May 15 and would end the operations by June 15.

Owing to an increase of Rs50 per 40 kg to Rs1,025 from the previous season’s Rs975 is expected to bring new acreage under the cotton crop during the next cropping season, ginners said.

They said last Sunday’s rain in the lower Sindh cotton belt did not cause any damage to the standing crop but rather proved beneficial as pest were washed away from the plants.

There was, therefore, no change in the official spot rates, which were firmly held at the previous level of Rs2,400 per maund.

New York cotton futures on the other hand suffered a fractional decline of 0.10 and 0.51 cents at 52.50 and 53.90 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the forward July contracts respectively.

Mills ready off-take was modest but reports coming from the southern Punjab cotton belt said about 7,000 bales changed hands around Rs2,450 per maund.