April 25, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1427

KARACHI, April 24: Trading on the cotton market on Monday resumed on a steady note but physical activity remained confined to a few selected lots as spinners have considerably reduced their daily intake.

Leading spinners and mills kept to the sidelines as their supply lines are comfortable and most of them have covered their forward positions earlier in the season at much cheaper rates but those whose financial positions are not that strong are worried over falling supplies and higher rates.

“An attractive bait of another TCP tender is also there,” brokers said, adding: “The successful outcome of the previous auction and more bids against the offered quantity of 30,000 bales signal that the mill demand is growing each day.”

Some big lots of fine types from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab are changing hands daily mostly around the ginner asking prices, brokers said.

However, ginners are not worried over the falling mill demand on the perception that they are not at the receiving end as they have been a couple of weeks earlier.

“The unsold stocks lying with us are manageable and we would try to sell them at our price options,” some ginners claim, adding: “No one among us is in a hurry to get out of their unsold positions at least for the near-term.”

The unsold stock of about 0.7m bales is said to be in the godowns of leading ginners whose holding capacity is pretty strong, while their weaker links have already out of the market after having sold their stocks.

As a result official spot rates remained pegged at the last close, while a big lot was sold well above them on quality considerations.

Mill ready off-take was modest totalling 4,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,470 per maund, while unofficial sources said another 3,000 bales also changed at around Rs2,450.